If you pay a visit to a certain Northumberland suburb anytime Newcastle are playing, or at Christmas and New Year, you might end up waiting at the bar with a Geordie legend, as it has attracted its fair share of customers including Alan Shearer and Dec Donnelly.
Northumberland is a region that is blessed with an abundance of great country pubs and traditional boozers and a place with a few good ones is Ponteland. Not too far from town and a short drive from Newcastle Airport, The Diamond has long since been a big favourite with both locals and visitors to the area.
And among its regulars is a certain iconic NUFC number 9, with Alan heading there whenever he can, like when he joined a big group of mates to see Newcastle’s famous 1-0 victory over Arsenal at St James’ Park in November 2023.
The only goal of the game,. a bundled home effort from Anthony Gordon, caused some controversy , with Gunners boss Mikel Arteta fuming it was allowed to stand, after being convinced the ball had gone out of, before Joe Willock sent a cross into the box for Gordon to get on the end
Taking full advantage of having a night off from Match of the Day punditry duties, Alan headed to The Diamond with some friends to celebrate Newcastle’s win, posting a photo on X of himself, together with friends and holding a pint in the air and captioning it: ‘La La La La La La La La La Geordies #NEWARS Boooommmmm.’
Big Al isn’t the only Geordie celeb to enjoy a night in Ponteland, but, unlike Alan, ITV presenter Dec took his night there a step further, by getting behind the mic for a bit of karaoke.
Thirty years after he and best mate Ant McPartlin first hit the charts as PJ & Duncan, Dec was at The Badger on New Year’s Eve and got right in the spirit of things, by belting out Billy Joel’s Piano Man accompanied by local acoustic duo The Optics who posted a video clip of the big moment on Instagram, as Dec read the lyrics of the famous track from his phone.
And those who were in the pub at the same time, once they’s gotten over the shock of having Dec singing in front of them, were quick to join in with each chorus.
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