About BotP
Base of the Pyramid came about after my wife and friends at work said that I should start writing about my visits to non-league grounds around the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire area. That was back in 2012.
As I was born and bred in the Black Country, I began my non-league adventures by following Stourbridge FC around their Southern League travels to the likes of Bedford Town, Banbury United, Biggleswade, Hitchin etc. However, when Stourbridge transferred to the Northern Premier League that became impossible. Getting to Workington or Blyth on a Tuesday evening was out of the question. So I began to spread my wings, discovering that watching football when you have no particular allegiance to either of the teams, was very enjoyable. I was able to watch the game without any stress.
My blogs began to get more traction and it was at this point that I started to watch games lower down the pyramid, using my blog to help give a little more exposure to teams who didn't get regular coverage, even in their local free newspapers. My focus in the men's game, going forward, will be the grassroots levels (step 7 and below).
In 2018 I also got my Level 1 coaching badge and began to coach Wildcats for a local grassroots club where my daughter was a player. Over the next four years we took the Wildcats group into the the local girl's league, progressing from a quiet, timid bunch into a fully-fledged team, a process that was both frustrating and extremely rewarding. It also increased my interest in women's football.
Having had a connection with Reading's finest Sunday League team, Caversham United, for a few years, I extended my player sponsorship from the men's team to their newly formed woman's team. This, in turn, led me to spend a season watching and blogging about the Southern Region Women's League Division One North, after Caversham were promoted. I enjoyed watching those games so much that I decided to extend my coverage to all three Southern Region divisions, writing a weekly newsletter style blog reviewing results and previewing fixtures, with an aim to increase the coverage of the league and, hopefully, encourage more people to go along to games. The weekly blog seems to have gained a certain amount of popularity amongst the clubs.
In the future there will be more coverage of women's football, particularly the Southern Region Leagues, but extending to the feeders for the league and also keeping in touch with teams promoted upwards into the National League structure. There are also some other possibilities including a podcast and a new website, if I can find more hours in the week.
As I was born and bred in the Black Country, I began my non-league adventures by following Stourbridge FC around their Southern League travels to the likes of Bedford Town, Banbury United, Biggleswade, Hitchin etc. However, when Stourbridge transferred to the Northern Premier League that became impossible. Getting to Workington or Blyth on a Tuesday evening was out of the question. So I began to spread my wings, discovering that watching football when you have no particular allegiance to either of the teams, was very enjoyable. I was able to watch the game without any stress.
My blogs began to get more traction and it was at this point that I started to watch games lower down the pyramid, using my blog to help give a little more exposure to teams who didn't get regular coverage, even in their local free newspapers. My focus in the men's game, going forward, will be the grassroots levels (step 7 and below).
In 2018 I also got my Level 1 coaching badge and began to coach Wildcats for a local grassroots club where my daughter was a player. Over the next four years we took the Wildcats group into the the local girl's league, progressing from a quiet, timid bunch into a fully-fledged team, a process that was both frustrating and extremely rewarding. It also increased my interest in women's football.
Having had a connection with Reading's finest Sunday League team, Caversham United, for a few years, I extended my player sponsorship from the men's team to their newly formed woman's team. This, in turn, led me to spend a season watching and blogging about the Southern Region Women's League Division One North, after Caversham were promoted. I enjoyed watching those games so much that I decided to extend my coverage to all three Southern Region divisions, writing a weekly newsletter style blog reviewing results and previewing fixtures, with an aim to increase the coverage of the league and, hopefully, encourage more people to go along to games. The weekly blog seems to have gained a certain amount of popularity amongst the clubs.
In the future there will be more coverage of women's football, particularly the Southern Region Leagues, but extending to the feeders for the league and also keeping in touch with teams promoted upwards into the National League structure. There are also some other possibilities including a podcast and a new website, if I can find more hours in the week.