20.09.17

Swan And McCranor Get The Real Deal!

Last year’s Guru Match Academy Sponsorship winners, Rob Swan and Will McCranor, have joined the Tackle Guru ranks as fully sponsored anglers.

The two young guns caught the eye’s of our Guru’s at last year’s Guru Match Academy, when they were chosen to receive a one-year £1000 sponsorship. Of course, this year’s Match Academy which took place a last month marked the end of their term. However, Tackle Guru as a brand has been highly impressed with Will and Rob, and has announced they are continuing their sponsorship deals to help the young anglers progress further.

Tackle Guru Brand Manager, Adam Rooney, was super keen for Rob and Will to remain part of the team and added:

“Well before their first-year deal ended, I was already keen to keep the two young guns as part of the team, as were many of the other Gurus. They not only shone in last year’s Academy, but they’ve shown huge amounts of progression in their fishing and personalities on the bankside.

“In the last 12 months, Will has made it into the England Youth team, and recently returned from the World Championship with a Bronze medal, also finishing fourth overall! Rob is a fantastic young angler, who puts a lot of effort into his fishing and gets consistently good results fishing against adults in competitions all the time. Both of them have come on leaps and bounds, and it’s been a pleasure to help them progress.

“Aside from their fishing abilities however, the two guys are both brilliant personalities, and highly approachable. This year, they came to the Match Academy and did some tutoring themselves. They’ve both embraced the media side of things, doing features and videos off their own backs and fitting in with the team incredibly well. It’s an honor to have the guys on board!”

Dean Macey having a bankside giggle with the duo!

Rob and Will were a great help at this year's Match Academy!

Rob has also caught the eyes of another company closely associated with Guru, in the shape of Daiwa UK. Commercial Manager Martin Greene soon spotted Rob and was keen to offer him some support in his angling from Daiwa UK. He said: “I was aware of Rob for some time, but he really caught my eye on a video he did earlier this year for Guru. After speaking to Adam Rooney about him several times, I was lucky enough to meet him at Broom Fisheries, where I discovered he lives quite far away from any hub of match fishing. I was highly impressed that such a young angler was putting the time and effort into travelling to compete, and was keen to help him out where we could. You can see that Rob is a highly dedicated individual and has raw talent; he works incredibly hard at his fishing and is well supported by his family.

“We’ve kitted out Rob with a Daiwa Pole and Air luggage set, as well as the TD rod and reel range to make sure he’s equipped with what he needs for his fishing going forward. For us it’s about supporting a very dedicated and talented young angler and growing a partnership for the future.

Hopefully, he’ll continue doing what he’s doing and we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the future too!”

Both the young talents were overwhelmed to join the Guru team on full terms, and buzzing at Match Academy at couple of weeks ago, Will excitedly said: “It’s unreal really, and shows that pushing and trying your best at fishing does pay off. If you’d have told us 18 months ago that we’d be part of the Guru team, neither of us would have believed you! Thank you very much to Guru for enabling us to have this opportunity, and to everyone else who supports us!”

A smiling Rob couldn’t resist adding in his own way too: “It’s mental really isn’t it! We are really lucky, all the guys here at Guru are brilliant anglers all winning to help people improve, and they’re a really good laugh too. It’s an honor to be a part of it, and the Daiwa addition is the icing on the cake. We’ll be trying our best to push on, help the brands and share our fun and angling with everyone!”

Rob in action last year, where he first caught the eyes of our Guru's.

After winning the star Guru prize last year, Will proved he's worthy of a full-time deal!

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