Mounts Bay have announced that they are intending to fold unless they can strike a last-minute deal with Redruth.

Bay have been unable to secure their financial future following relegation from National Two last season, with debts totalling more than £26,000.

The club are due to meet with officials from Redruth RFC on Monday to discuss a ground and player-sharing scheme.

If a deal is not reached, Bay expect to confirm their decision to fold at their annual general meeting on 23 July.

Mounts Bay, who have enjoyed a meteoric rise since their formation in 2000, winning seven promotions in eight seasons, originally announced they were set to enter administration in May 2009, when Michael Leah resigned as club president.

A four-strong committee was subsequently set up to try to get the club out of debt, but various initiatives to solve the financial problems have so far fallen short.

Arthur Edwards, the chairman of Mounts Bay, told BBC Spotlight that the lack of a positive outcome was not through want of trying.

"The interim committee worked very very hard and at the end of an eight-week period they've come to the conclusion that they can see no way forward," said Edwards.

Edwards cited the financial shortfalls created during last year's campaign in National Two as having had a severe effect on the club's ability to continue, both on and off the pitch.

He said: "We were very disappointed with the supporter numbers last season.

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"We were expecting somewhere between 500 and 800 per game, but on occasions we were lucky to get 200 supporters and if you're running a semi-professional club you need a lot more people through the gates."

At an EGM held on Thursday night, Edwards said the interim committee were still struggling to find a solution.

He said: "Ultimately after a great deal of debate it was agreed that we would disband as a club."

The number of players at Mounts Bay is a further hindrance to their survival, with Edwards saying that the club only have "about seven players on our books".

All the people who were at the meeting passionately want to keep Mounts Bay going Arthur Edwards, chairman, Mounts Bay RFC

But, the Mounts Bay chairman did offer a chink of hope to the club's supporters that the disbanding process could be halted, if they are able to strike a player-sharing deal with Redruth.

"The big difficulty is players," he said. "But Redruth have a lot of players available and many of those won't be playing regular rugby.

"They want to bring a lot of these young lads on and National Two rugby is a very high standard of rugby."

Edwards added: "All the people who were at the meeting last night passionately want to keep Mounts Bay going."

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