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The Far Corner and The Near Post

Myself and fellow Cope fan and indeed fellow Newcastle supporter Jack had been thwarted several times in the past on trying to find The Devil's Jump Stone- always by the long grass which can easily obscure this mighty er....... 2 foot tall standing stone. However with so little in the way of megalithic monuments in the area we had been determined to find this one for some time, it was just a question of when or so we told ourselves!!

When indeed - well it went something like this "Newcastle are on Sky Sports on Sunday against Chelsea in the FA Cup; we probably don't stand a chance of winning but do you fancy coming up for some Sunday lunch and then going down the pub to watch it?" asked Jack. " Aye ok sounds good" I replied - "my house is going to be off limits to me that day due to imminent wedding preparations - bride and bridesmaids hair trials etc. But there is one condition - can we go and try to find the Jump Stone before we go to the pub?" I asked.

And so it was fortified by a big Sunday lunch we set off and with some degree of pessimism on two counts.

1) Based on past performance we neither of us held out too much hope of finding this stone.

2) Newcastle were displaying form that spelled certain relegation and we fully expected to be on the wrong end of a humiliating thrashing by the side with a very good chance of winning the quadruple.

Anyhow to cut a long story short - we parked the car on the road next to the field that had thwarted us so many times before and entered through the gate.
"It's got to be around here somewhere?" said Jack immediately

"I think that's it over there actually" I replied pointing at a forlorn figure not 20 feet away. "Is that it, that was easy, I said."You don't think that this is a sign do you? We couldn't go on to beat Chelsea as well could we?"

"Naaahhhhhhh!"


And so off we went to the pub where four minutes in to the game - Patrick Kluivert (also known as The Fat Dutchman) tucked away what proved to be the only goal of the game and Newcastle displayed some totally uncharacteristic good defending to seal the match sending us home happy and dreaming of FA Cup glory in Cardiff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Footnote - FA Cup Semi Final 14th April 2005 - Newcastle 1 Manchester United 4 - normal service has been resumed and I think that I'll just stick to the stone circling in future!!

Devil's Jump Stone — Images

05.06.05ce
<b>Devil's Jump Stone</b>Posted by Joolio Geordio
Joolio Geordio Posted by Joolio Geordio
6th June 2005ce
Edited 6th June 2005ce


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