Billionaire's money set to transform Bath's fortunes

ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP: BATH, ONE of the earliest clubs to fall into the hands of a millionaire, yesterday traded up, becoming …

ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP:BATH, ONE of the earliest clubs to fall into the hands of a millionaire, yesterday traded up, becoming the first to be bought by an English billionaire.

The switch from the greetings cards millions of Andrew Brownsword to the pharmaceutical billions of the 47-year-old Bruce Craig, a Bristol boy who made his money in France, seems certain to accelerate Bath’s departure from the Rec, their home beside the Avon for 115 years and arguably the most beautiful ground in the country.

Craig has set a deadline of one year in which to find a solution to the problem of increasing the Rec’s capacity of under 12,000. Neither man would say what Craig had paid for the club.

The sale includes all Brownsword’s shares and those held by club trustees, but does not include the valuable training ground at Lambridge. That will remain with the trustees as the amateur and professional parts of the club separate, with the first XV likely to be playing on a new ground, also alongside the Avon but on a brownfield site to the west of the city.

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Brownsword two years ago began talking with Craig, a scrum-half and former England under-19 trialist. The latter is the product of a rugby conveyor belt, from St Brendan’s Grammar, Bristol: he also played for Loughborough University and Racing Metro – after moving to Paris in 1987.

Their deal was made possible when Craig sold Marken, an international distributions services company for the pharmaceutical industry, for €1104 million in January.

Craig was talking yesterday of having a 20-25,000-seat stadium ready within five years and gathering the various parts of the club, currently on four sites, together immediately.

The site chosen is Farleigh House, a gothic country house and chapel 15 minutes from Bath and set in a 120-acre deer park. .

Bath have been at the Rec since 1895 and since the game went professional, the issue of developing the ground has become increasingly pressing.