POTENTIAL Shakers saviour Beau has sensationally pulled out of his bid to buy the crisis-hit club.

The claim was being made on the official Bury FC website last night: but the Horwich-based pensioner has refused to confirm or deny it.

The 71-year-old lifelong Shakers fan, along with his Nearly Red Management team, had promised to put £23 million into the Gigg Lane club over the next ten years.

With a huge question mark over Beau's future involvement, the Bury Times can reveal that at least three bids are now on the table, two of them from "mystery" buyers.

One team which has declared its hand is led by the new Bury FC Fundraising Committee in partnership with existing club directors and supporters.

When contacted yesterday, Beau, an Unsworth-born musician who changed his name 30 years ago, repeatedly refused to say whether the website claims are true.

The Bury FC site says it has "confirmed" that Beau has pulled out because of uncertainty over future funding under the ITV Digital deal. Bury FC could lose £183,000 if a rescue deal between the company and the Nationwide League is not worked out by next season.

Beau said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement not to discuss any bid.

As far as the Bury website is concerned, he said: "That's up to Bury FC. I don't know where that's come from. I cannot comment, it's not in our power to do so. If it's come from the administrator, he tells the truth. I have not had a fax from him saying our bid has been withdrawn."

The administrators, RSM Robson Rhodes, said the website claims have not come from them.

Mr John Smith, joint chairman of Bury FC, confirmed that his team, of existing club directors, the Supporters Trust, and the fundraising committee, had put in a bid.

"We believed that ours was the only bid: it certainly was on Tuesday lunchtime," he said. "Then today (Thursday) I heard that a late bid came in. I don't know who that is. Now they say they have a few?"

Despite the confusion, Mr Smith said he was "very hopeful" that his bid would succeed.

The offer comprises money from a "prominent" local businessman towards the £1.3 million mortgage on the ground; cash to buy Hugh Eaves' shares; and to pay a percentage to the club's creditors who are owed "around £300,000".

"I feel confident, but it's the timescale," said Mr Smith. "The last thing we want is to have to find wages during the summer with very little coming in. We don't want the money the supporters have raised to drain away. It's imperative that the deal is done in the very near future, then we can plan ahead for next year."

Mr Paul Palmer, senior administrator with RSM Robson Rhodes, said that "several" offers to buy the Shakers had been received by Tuesday's deadline.

He declined to name the bidders, or to comment on whether Beau had withdrawn his bid. But the Bury Times understands that at least one of the other bids is from someone not so far mentioned in the takeover saga.

The administrators want to present at least one firm bid to the High Court on April 26, when they will ask for the administration order on the club to be extended for a couple of months while a sale is finalised.