About BoA

Hello! I am Rich and in 2019 I decided to start pointing a camera at a Step 7 side called Charlwood...

Along with their manager, Peter ‘Barks’ Barkley, I wanted to make a two-hour documentary about non-league football and tell the story of several sides at various levels of the pyramid. My barber mentioned Dorking Wanderers as a potential focus, and after meeting Marc White, I knew he was onto something. I started with one camera, which I sold to buy three cameras, and then I figured, I would need some GoPros. And microphones. And tripods and so on…

After a year of filming, COVID-19 landed and the plan fell apart. But Barks had different ideas - he suggested that I start editing episodes together for the players to watch while they were locked down, and the players seemed to really like what they saw. After a while, it became clear that, rather than make a film, perhaps Bunch of Amateurs would be better off as a YouTube channel. So when play recommenced in late 2020, Bunch of Amateurs became a weekly documentary focussing on individual games between Charlwood and the football clubs of the Mid-Sussex Prem.

But a second lockdown put an end to that. So I asked Marc, who until now had been allowing the filming of random bits and pieces, if he’d be interested in letting me shoot a bit more detail, and make some weekly episodes like the Charlwood show. Marc agreed to allow the cameras in, and within weeks the viewing figures were climbing. The show would switch between Charlwood and Dorking until Barks left his role as manager, and Dorking became the main focus. And when Barks convinced me to put some stuff on TikTok, a platform I knew little about, we began to find a much bigger audience.

Meanwhile, the BoA team, which was pretty much just me for the first 18 months, was growing. A few friends trained up on the cameras and chipped in (thanks Matt and Nick!) and Celia volunteered for work experience. And Zach the lunatic goalkeeper’s brother helped too. But it was Greg Haines coming on board as head camera op that really helped me step things up, along with my wife Clare who chipped in too. Then Jack Richmond volunteered his services and suddenly the BoA team was able to cover way more on a match day.

Barks had a stint at Holland Sports, which we covered from start to finish, and his departure around Christmas meant that the crew would focus entirely on the Wanderers, and when they ended up in the play-offs for the finale of Dorking Uncovered Season 2, we couldn’t believe our luck.

Today, the Bunch of Amateurs team is headed up by me, with Jack as my only full-time employee. He’s helping to shoot and edit all the episodes after cutting his teeth by producing the Raynes Park Uncovered series. A team of freelancers attend match days to help shoot the show, while a social media expert occasionally chips in with some work when he feels like it (thanks Leo).

A match day shoot usually consists of four or five people, 20 cameras, 12 microphones and lots of running around. Most Dorking Wanderers games are covered, as much as the clubs will allow, and we do have plans to step back down to the lower leagues in the relatively near future.

But for now, Bunch of Amateurs is entirely focussed on Dorking Wanderers and their quest to make it into the EFL. And we fully intend to be there when they do…