As a club, we’ve had a long and close relationship with UCLan’s School of Journalism. We’ve always been keen to support young sports journalists and giving them access to the 
coverage of rugby at our level. Ahead of the 2021-22 season we appointed Elliot Burrow to write reports of our 1st XV matches at the Woodlands. Then about to start his second year of his degree course, he rose to the challenge and quickly established an excellent relationship with the Club’s players, coaches and officials. He wrote almost 30 reports covering National League matches and feature pieces in the 2021-23 period.
We want to see students such as Elliot progress to a professional career in journalism and related fields following graduation. We were sorry to see him leave the Club last summer but absolutely delighted when he obtained a post of News & Sports Reporter covering the Herefordshire and Worcestershire patch for Bauer Media.
His place was taken ahead of the current season by a 3rd year UCLan sports journalism student, Stuart McCracken. He grew up on a small farm in the north west of Northern Ireland going to a primary school of just 30 pupils. It was when he joined his secondary school that his interest in rugby union was sparked. After playing rugby at school he joined his local rugby club, Limavady RFC, at the age of 12. He joined the club at the age of 12 and played all the way through the Under-14’s up to the Under-21’s and even played a few times for the 2nd XV before coming over to England for university.
“Rugby Union helped me form friends for life and life skills I still use today. When coming over to England I knew my playing career had to be put on hold to prioritise my aspiring sports journalist career. During my first year at University I didn’t get much hands on experience outside of the degree but in second year picked up job opportunities at Blackpool FC as well as reporting on Sale Sharks for a website called Prost International. Going to cover Sale in the Gallagher Premiership Final at Twickenham last season was a lifetime dream and a memory I will never forget.”
As he faces his last weeks at UCLan, Stuart has landed a full time job as Media & Marketing Assistant at Blackpool FC. We’re all delighted for him and I’m sure he would acknowledge that his work with Fylde over the last eight months has helped broaden his experience and boosted his confidence as an aspiring professional sports journalist. Congratulations and good luck Stuart!
Another student, Tom Kelly, has been helping out in recent weeks.
In the meanwhile, we’ll be seeking another student from the course to carry on in the new 2024-25 season starting in late August the great work of Elliot, Stuart and other, earlier members of the degree programme.