Bradford Bulls have resumed legal proceedings to petition for the winding up of sponsors Skylark.

The drastic move follows a roller coaster four weeks which has seen a cheque for the Super League club twice not cleared by banks because of a lack of funds in the Skylark account.

And the insolvency proceedings have begun only days before the Bulls travel to Twickenham to face St Helens in the centenary Challenge Cup final. Bulls chairman Chris Caisley told the Telegraph & Argus that yesterday was the deadline for Skylark owner Brendan Larkin to hand over the money - and he had not received the £176,250 to cover the remaining part of the sponsorship deal.

He said: "We are very disappointed it has come to this. They keep telling us they are due to complete the sale of land which will raise funds.

"We are waiting for advice as to what steps we should take and will be looking at the jersey situation.

"We have to consider whether we will be able to place someone else's name on the shirt in the final, or whether that would be breaking the contract.

"We have a lot of people who are interested in putting their name on our shirt."

He added: "It is not an issue that affects the players. They have more important things to think about."

The first step will be to get the proceedings advertised in the legal publication the London Gazette but the club is still taking advice from its lawyers on what other avenues it has available.

Mr Larkin first presented the cheque to the Bulls at the end of March, two days before their cup semi-final clash. But it was returned to the club soon after when the bank refused to meet the amount.

It was then re-presented by the club early this month but was again refused by bankers. Mr Larkin said he had asked the club not to cash the cheque before his solicitors gave the all-clear, a claim Mr Caisley has denied.

A spokesman for Mr Larkin did not want to comment when approached by the Telegraph & Argus yesterday.