One of the curiosities about supporting a football team is the misplaced sense it gives you of the prestige of a particular town or city. So it is with Gateshead, whose team is relatively minor (it has a very fragmented history and has only this season achieved the dizzy heights of the Conference), resulting in my indolently foisting upon the town, about which I know nothing, the same vague sense of irrelevance and mediocrity.
This, of course, is stupid and unjust. So as a belated continuation of my gazetteer of places Oxford have played for the first time as part of their non-league odyssey, I give you Gateshead, Tyne & Wear. It has a rich, varied history - the first recorded mention dates from 623, in the writings of the Venerable Bede, and mining in the town dates back to 1344. The first cable laid between Dover and Calais was manufactured in Gateshead, as was half of the first one across the Atlantic (presumably the half that started here and stopped when it met the American half). It is also home to the MetroCentre, which is the largest shopping centre in the European Union. That sounds a bit grim, doesn't it?
If you believe JB Priestley, it wasn't much to behold 75 years ago. Writing in "An English Journey", he said that "no true civilisation could have produced such a town", adding that it appeared to have been designed "by an enemy of the human race". And that was long before the Trinity Centre car park.
But you can't say they haven't tried to redress the balance, with the wonderful Millennium Bridge, and the extraordinary Sage.
And of course, you'll already have an opinion about this. Mine is that it is a stunning, audacious statement of civic pride and if I didn't already live in one of the most beautiful cities in England I'd be a bit jealous.
