THE organisers of the the gruelling mud run Rood Rampage have not only cancelled Sunday's event but they have ceased trading all together.

Extreme Events UK said that they had suffered significant financial losses from hosting the 10km assault course in Rood Ashton for the last two years due to low participation numbers.

The company, which has run The Battle of Lansdown mud run near Bath for five years, has also been forced to fold entirely.

Ticket sales for Sunday's event were closed last week to avoid further bookings being made and the team are now in the process of trying to raise funds though the sale of assets to offer refunds.

A statement on its website said: "It is with great sadness and disappointment that we have to cancel the Rood Rampage on July 15.

"For the last five years our small and very dedicated team have worked tirelessly to deliver enjoyable, challenging and fun races to thousands of competitors from all over the area.

"For the last two years the Rood Rampage has had wonderful reviews but relatively low participation numbers and has made a significant financial loss.

"With our belief and determination in the race we invested more in new obstacles and marketing to increase ticket sales.

"This has not resulted in the increase in sales required to put the race on and we were left with only one option that being to cancel the race.

"This decision has been incredibly hard to make and not only are we cancelling The Rood Rampage we are ceasing to trade entirely.

"There have been many large and small companies in the industry which have closed down in the last 18 months and we find ourselves in the same position as them.

"The increase in cost of appropriate insurance cover, medical cover, infrastructure costs, and the creation of new obstacles has resulted in being unable to hold another loss-making event.

"You may, no doubt, feel frustration, anger, disappointment and annoyance at the news and we are truly sorry."

Hundreds of people went to Rood Rampage last year.

The post added: "We closed ticket sales last week to avoid any further bookings being made and are now in the process of trying to raise funds though the sale of assets to offer refunds.

"Once tickets are sold the funds are immediately invested in non-refundable deposits for the setting up of the event such as the infrastructure and medals etc, we also invest in marketing which cannot be recovered and obviously we pay our staff to create new obstacles.

"None of these costs can be recovered and so we will not be able to offer full refunds. At best, we are hoping to provide a refund of around 50 per cent of your entry but this will not include Parents of Kids’ tickets. The procedure for this will be organised over the next few days and we will be in contact.

"We do not have a large corporate backer behind us, we do not have a major sponsor, we are a small dedicated team who had a dream, lots of ideas and determination who self-funded the whole operation but have ultimately fallen fowl of spiralling event costs and disappointing ticket sales.

"We are truly very sorry and hope you appreciate that this has been an incredibly hard and distressing decision to make."