Pearce appeals for funds as Bristol contemplate financial ruin

Four years ago, when Bristol Rugby Club did not possess a receptacle in which to relieve itself, the splendidly obsessive Malcolm Pearce piled in a small mountain of cash and professed his determination to keep top-level union alive in a city that, until the late 1980s, had been at the very forefront of the game.

Yesterday, Pearce was reduced to the sporting equivalent of begging for alms. If no money is forthcoming, the current row over Premiership relegation may be rendered wholly academic.

Premiership insiders have spent the last few days privately predicting that one major club will hit the financial buffers sooner rather than later, and the identity of that club is now clear. Bristol are in crisis, as Pearce knows better than anyone, given his £9m investment since 1998. They may have a quality coach in Peter Thorburn and a clutch of high-class players – Phil Christophers, Daryl Gibson, Felipe Contepomi, Agustin Pichot, Julian White, Garath Archer – but they have very little of the folding stuff, and while Pearce is keen to hang in there for the time being, his patience is running ever thinner as his wallet continues to empty.

Pearce is dissatisfied with his club's current ground-share arrangement at the Memorial Ground, which they once owned lock, stock and barrel, and remains deeply upset by last week's proceedings in the High Court, where the former Springbok outside-half Joel Stransky won a claim for breach of contract and landed Bristol with a bill for compensation and costs in the region of £400,000. The owner now says he needs £1m in outside funding just for the club to scrape along to the end of the season. Without it, Bristol may go to the wall for the second time in recent memory, and leave the Premiership with 11 clubs rather than 12.

"I always felt it was important to do whatever I could to maintain a rugby team that would do Bristol proud," Pearce said last night. "We have largely achieved that, and the dark days of 1998 are far behind us. So much has happened that it is hard to remember the time when the club found itself in the second division, with few players and hardly a full set of kit to call its own.

"Since then, we have been promoted, reached a European semi-final, a domestic cup semi-final, consolidated our position in the Premiership and qualified for the Heineken Cup. But last week's astonishing court verdict has been a real body blow. It has brought home to me that I need the support of others and need it quickly. The first court payments are due in early January."

The owner is now appealing to local businesses and supporters' groups to sponsor individual players, thereby fleshing out the sums from the two primary sources: the car company Mitsubishi, from where Bristol take their nickname of "Shoguns", and, more importantly, Pearce's personal bank account. The initiative will certainly generate some new money. Whether it will generate enough is a very different matter.

Orrell, one of the teams in National League One who have no financial problems to speak of, will welcome Gary Connolly, one of the most celebrated rugby league players of the modern era, into their back division for tomorrow's Powergen Cup quarter-final with Northampton at Edge Hall Road.

Connolly, currently on a cross-code deal that enables him to play for both Orrell and Wigan, made seven appearances for the union club last season and is expected to play regularly in the second half of this campaign.