Bath's Brucie Bonus promises much

A fellow journalist recently observed, rather waggishly, that Bath had been the most professional team in English rugby during the amateur era, and had attempted to look the most amateur since the dawn of professionalism.

It was a little tongue-in-cheek, but the absence of a major piece of silverware since 1998 has rankled – and is in sharp contrast to Bath's glory days in the late 80s and early 90s.

The aura of an enduring amateurism at the club has been perpetuated by facilities that have been freely acknowledged to be sub-standard for a team with such a history and top-flight ambitions.

But now any suggestion that Bath lack the focus, planning and drive to truly make it in the professional era have been blown out of the water.

Andrew Brownsword – to whom Bath supporters owe a huge debt of gratitude, given the financially precarious position the club found itself in during the infancy of the professional era – has decided that the stewardship of the club needs to be handed on to a younger pair of hands.

Brownsword had a strict list of criteria he wanted the next owner to meet – and Bruce Craig (pictured right), it seems, met them with flying colours.

"Hurdles will be jumped by Bruce's passion and involvement," Brownsword told me yesterday. "He is absolutely the right person."

Instrumental in bringing Craig to Bath has been the club's new chief executive, Nick Blofeld, who was at university with the new chairman.

I'll let Craig tell the story of how Blofeld's involvement brought his uni pal to the club:

"Nick said to me a couple of years ago, 'What would you like to do now that you have made a lot of money'. I said I would love to buy a rugby club.

"Three months later it transpired that Nick spoke to someone at Bath Rugby at a conference, and they asked 'Do you know anyone who wants to buy a rugby club?' And Nick said 'As it happens, I do'."

The rest, as they say, is history.

Craig, given his background as a former rugby player, is, I imagine, likely to be a far more hands-on chairman than his predecessor. And given his announcement yesterday about plans for a new Bath Rugby HQ, it's clear he's hitting the ground running and already has his sleeves rolled up.

In the shadow of Farleigh Hungerford Castle, Bath's new headquarters will surely be a sight to behold. Play their cards right, and Bath could soon be elevated from being the perennial professional pretenders to being kings of the castle.