An Evening with Nick Blofeld – without
Nick Blofeld !!
On Tuesday 15th February, in the Illustrious
Suite at the Rec, Bath Rugby Supporters’ Club hosted another opportunity for
CEO Nick Blofeld to update supporters about current developments at the Club.
As it turned out, Nick Blofeld was unavoidably detained elsewhere on Club
business and so was unable to attend.
However, his late replacement – Managing Director, Jeremy Wilton – did
an absolutely splendid job in delivering Nick’s presentation, and then answered
questions from the large audience with considerable assurance.
Jeremy mainly concentrated on planned short-term improvements at the Rec and
the new stadium project (hereafter to be called the ‘venue project’). He gave some details of the forthcoming
Public Consultation exercise, due to be carried out in the next few weeks by
the Rec Trustees on behalf of the Charity Commission.
He also detailed the progress made so far towards the completion of all of the
facilities under development at Farleigh House.
These include the completed full-size training pitch, the all-weather
(artificial surface) 3G half-size pitch and the state-of-the-art medical, rehab,
strength and conditioning, gym, and changing facilities. The club management and administrative staff
moved from
It is
anticipated that all of the key work at Farleigh will be finished during the
summer, to allow the ‘playing’ side of the Club to move in for pre-season training
and be fully up and running by the start of next season. The proposed visit by Supporters’ Club
members would hopefully be able to go-ahead in August, probably whilst the squad were away on their pre-season training camp.
Jeremy also revealed that the main Ticket Office will move from the rear of the
West Stand to shop premises on Pulteney Bridge next door to the Club Shop
(latterly ‘Pink Stripes’), as soon as the relevant alterations are complete –
although the ‘old’ Ticket Office will still continue to operate on match days
only as well in the future.
Next season will kick-off on the weekend of 3rd September. Bath Rugby are already well aware of how annoyed most of us are about all of the fixture date and timing changes due to television coverage. Jeremy assured us they are fighting that particular corner as much as they can – and more than some other clubs – as it has affected business (retail sales and hospitality) quite markedly as well as inconveniencing many supporters.
As an
unexpected bonus, Defence & Skills Coach Brad Davis also came along to talk
about playing matters. After a review of
the current situation with regard to player recruitment and retention for next
season, Brad gave a short update on the injuries front. He answered questions from
the floor on team tactics and discussed in detail several issues raised about
the way this season has gone so far.
Brad talked about recent alterations to the way we play, with a continuation
of our open running style but acknowledging that we need one or more ‘Plan Bs’,
with a more consistently threatening pack. He described this as “style
and stubbornness – an iron fist in a velvet glove”. In training the
Coaches had introduced double sessions to produce a more dogged type of
performance when required. They had made this change some 6–8 weeks ago,
and Brad said that he thought the results were clearly apparent in the away
wins at London Irish and
He
re-iterated that the Club are keen to keep Shontayne Hape;
it is now up to him whether he accepts the contract offer made.
Thanks again to Jeremy and Brad for taking the time to come and address the Supporters’ Club on what proved to be a most informative and interesting evening. We will hold another one before too long – to which those of you who couldn’t make it this time are most cordially invited, along with those who did !
Glyn Edwards
BRSC Press Officer