Ben at Black and White and Read All Over (NUFC-centric sister-blog of the same writer's Silent Words Speak Loudest) has been serialising some pieces I originally wrote for The Mag, and which later appeared over at Abby's Bonkworld, where they were collectively dubbed 'The Geordie Chronicles'. Today's offering is timed to coincide with tonight's potentially very scary indeed quarter-final tie away at Chelsea (live on BBC1, 8:00PM, watch from behind the sofa armed with plentiful supplies of canned lager) and is the story of the twenty-three years of heartbreak inflicted on me by Newcastle's floundering travails in the FA Cup. At least it was twenty-three years when the article first hit the Tyneside newstands. It is now twenty-eight and counting. A couple more and I will be able to hold the FA Cup personally responsible for the loss of all my hair, but that's another story.
Anyway, the story can be found here. Go and read it- it's worth it, I promise (why my series of articles in the Mag never led to a lucrative broadsheet career as a prominent Gonzo journalist I will never know). And hey- wish the lads well for tonight- something tells me we are going to need all the luck we can get this time out....
You still have articles you wrote 28 years ago? Jeez, were you writing them while doing your paper round? :)
I saw the match - rooting for NUFC obviously :) Bit disappointing I thought, at least in the first half, but the saddest thing was to see Shearer trudge off at the end. That's it as far as honours are going to go for him then.
Posted by: looby | March 24, 2006 at 02:27 PM
I wasn't that precocious Looby! The article was written five years ago, but it covered the FA Cup heartache associated with what was then a mere 23 years of following Newcastle. Now it's 28 (it feels more like 48, like...)
As for the game, at least we were able to run Chelsea close- I actually dared to come out from behind the sofa for the second half and watch some parts with both eyes wide open. And yes, sad for our retiring number nine, who trudged off at the end having trundled wearily on ageing legs through much of the game. With the Shearer of five years ago at centre-forward, we might have just had a chance of coming away with something..
Oh well- there's always next year, by which time Alan Shearer will be just another fan screaming futile encouragement at his TV while wearing a replica black and white shirt...
Posted by: jonathan | March 24, 2006 at 03:33 PM
Oh God...I knew I was getting hold of the wrong end of the stick somehow.
I'm 42 you know.
Posted by: looby | March 24, 2006 at 04:14 PM