BOLTON hero Nicky Hunt has started his management career in the TENTH tier of British football.
The 42-year-old spent a decade at The Reebok, before spells at Accrington Stanley, Leyton Orient and Crewe.
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Chairman Aaron Hunt (l) has signed ex-Prem defender Nicky Hunt as Daisy Hill gafferCredit: https://x.com/OfficialDHFC
But he has dropped down into non-league to kickstart his coaching career and is now leading the dugout at his local club Daisy Hill FC in the North West Counties, Division One North.
The former defender explained: “I grew up literally five minutes’ walk down the road, and my parents still live in Daisy Hill, so for me, it’s really close to home.
“I came here to watch the team as a kid, so I’ve got an affiliation with this football club.
“It was a family club back then, and it’s even probably more of a family club now.
“The fans, the committee members and everyone involved at the club, they just love it to a point where it’s become their lives, which is what I’m all about football-wise.
“ I put everything into it, whenever I’m into the coaching or the playing side.
“The way the club is run now, with the new sponsorships they’ve got, I can only really see it going one way.”
Daisy Hill have enjoyed an upturn in fortune after appointing a Twitch streamer who ran the team on the Football Manager computer game took over.
Aaron Hunt – who regularly streams online with his pal and darts wonderkid Luke Littler – said: “Everyone at the club is really looking forward to working with Nicky.
“He’s a local lad who had a brilliant playing career at the top level.
“He holds a UEFA A-Licence, and knows the local non-league scene, too, so he’s got great experience at all levels of the game.
“We believe that he is definitely the right man for Daisy Hill, and that there are going to be some exciting times ahead for everyone who follows the club, starting on Saturday when we host Nelson.”
Alyce says part of her role is challenging perceptions over the types of games women enjoy.
Statistics suggest women mostly play puzzle and strategy-style games. These non-violent titles, including life simulators The Sims and Animal Crossing, are often grouped under the label of “cosy gaming”.
But Alyce says she, like many women, also enjoys role-playing action and fantasy-adventure games.
“I used to hate horror games,” Alyce explains. “However, my audience loved to see me suffer, so I would play more and more, to the point I actually love them now”.
The make-up of her audience reflects this. While still predominantly male, she’s seen female viewership jump to around 10% in recent years – a small but significant increase.
Alyce earns what she describes as a “respectable” wage – even as one of the smaller names in the scene.
Not that it’s easy work. Gaming may be fun, but the challenge to not only grow, but maintain, an audience is relentless.
“I’m always grinding,” says Alyce, only recently cutting down from 12-hour days to six-hour streams, alongside morning admin, seven days a week.
She needs to juggle multiple accounts streaming on popular platforms like Twitch and YouTube, to make enough income from things like paying subscribers, revenue and partnerships.
It’s a task complicated by many platforms requiring a cut of broadcast earnings. Twitch, for example, takes half as standard.
Frankie Ward, an eSports gamer and presenter, says this is a lot about who games are being marketed to.
“In the past gaming has kind of been this protected identity that men have held on to very strongly.
“Women are being a lot more vocal about the fact that they’re gamers, and they’re becoming a lot prouder to say so.”
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Characters like Ellie in the survival-horror adventure The Last of Us showcase the increased depth of female representation in gaming
In the industry, there’s also been a noticeable departure from the over-sexualised, female characters of yesteryear, toward more rounded portrayals.
Games like The Last of Us, partly moulded by writers like Halley Gross, boast layered female characters at their core. Elsewhere, Life is Strange and Rage and Bloom have woven the realities of teenage life and womanhood – from periods to sexuality and body image – into their wider narratives.
Reflecting on the shift, Alyce says there have always been women gamers, but they’ve just been “quieter about it” – until now.
“I’ve been gaming since I was a child.” she says. “I didn’t know anyone in my school who was a girl who played games, whereas now it’s so easy to find communities and streamers who are women who you can talk to and game with.”
An ‘escape’ from daily struggles
Black Girl Gamers are one group that are bringing women together through gaming. What started out as a small Facebook group in 2015 has grown into a community of over 10,000 black female players worldwide.
Speaking to BBC Women’s Hour, community member Iesha says that gaming with the group has helped her meet like-minded people who share her background – some of whom have become her closest friends.
“When I was younger… I didn’t know there were other black female gamers like me.
“I thought I was a bit of an anomaly. I like the fact that I’m not.
Fellow member Deanne has become a close friend. She playfully compares meeting lesha online to a “try before you buy” situation. Hours spent chatting while gaming meant they got to know each other so well that their first in-person meeting felt entirely natural.
Deanne says that gaming with the group offers her “an escape” from daily struggles, including those unique to black women. “It’s a whole universe of people who just get it; everybody understands – it gives you a calmer mindset,” she says.
Adaobi, Deanne, Woman’s Hour presenter Nuala McGovern and Iesha
Adaobi, another Black Girl Gamer, says the camaraderie buffers the times when she joins public online game sessions outside the group and faces misogynistic or racist abuse.
“I know if I turn on my mic and I open my mouth [to talk during an online game], somebody’s not going be happy with it,” she says. In response, she’s begun telling men who abuse her to simply “do better”.
Others, like Deanne, opt to mute interactions. “I just turn it off. I don’t listen to them. The scoreboard will tell everything,” she quips.
To help combat these shared negative experiences, the community has launched a ‘venting’ channel on its Discord social media platform. A safe, member-only space for discussion and support.
Gaming then, is no longer a solitary experience, but an online world that can be a positive gateway to real-world understanding and connection.
For Iesha, be it playing online with others or watching a stream, gaming has also become an emotional refuge to navigate feelings.
“Gaming has helped me through some tough times, including family loss and grief,” she says. “Some of these games allow you to experience these emotions in gentle ways.”
And, as she emphasises, the shared journey makes all the difference. “I’m going through stuff…they’re going through stuff – but we can get through it,” she says. “That’s gaming”.
With nearly 3 million Twitch followers, Hasan Piker is one of the internet’s biggest political streamers. He blends humour, culture and masculinity talk with sharp political commentary, drawing young men away from the US alt-right. And on Gaza, he has become one of the loudest US voices for Palestine.
Nearly six months since the death of Stephen “Twitch” Boss, an autopsy report has provided new details about the beloved dancer’s unexpected death.
Boss, the DJ and executive producer on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show,” died by suicide on Dec. 13 last year, shocking his fans, friends and family.
“No one had any inkling that he was low. He didn’t want people to know,” his wife, Allison Holker Boss, told People in May. “He just wanted to be everyone’s Superman and protector.”
Boss, who originally rose to fame when he competed on the reality-dance competition show “So You Think You Can Dance,” died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the Oak Tree Inn motel in Encino, according to the L.A. County coroner report obtained by The Times.
A new autopsy report obtained by The Times clears up some unanswered questions, confirming that there were no drugs or alcohol found in the dancer’s system at the time of his death.
The report also stated that per his family, Boss had no history of suicidal ideation or suicide attempts. His wife had filed a missing persons report with the Los Angeles Police Department the day before Boss was found dead by the motel housekeeper, 10 minutes after checkout time.
“It’s been really hard because I can’t understand what was happening in that moment [he died],” said Holker Boss.
Boss left a note before he died, and the contents alluded to “past challenges” and led investigators to conclude Boss’ death was a suicide, which the autopsy report has confirmed. He did not, however, have a will in place. In February, Holker Boss filed a petition in Los Angeles for his half of their shared estate.
Ellen DeGeneres paid tribute to her DJ after the news broke.
“I’m heartbroken,” she wrote in the caption of an Instagram photo of her and Boss embracing on the “Ellen” set. “tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children — Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.”
In January, weeks after his death, the Boss family laid Twitch to rest during an intimate funeral service at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.
Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional and call 9-8-8. The United States’ first nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline 988 will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line.
