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Background and purpose Standard treatment for rectal cancer which threatens the expected plane of resection on MRI imaging is long-course, pre-operative chemoradiotherapy (1.8–2 Gy, 25–28 fractions). Not all patients are suitable for this because of age, poor performance status or co-morbidities. We describe our experience of short-course (5 × 5 Gy) pre-operative radiotherapy with planned, delayed surgery (SCPRT-delay) in this patient group. Materials and methods Between April 2001 and October 2007, 43 patients were selected for SCPRT-delay. The clinical records were retrospectively evaluated. Results Median age was 82 (range 58–87). Forty-one patients had radiotherapy of which 26 (61%) were subsequently able to have surgery. Of these, R0, R1 and R2 resections were performed in 22, 2 and 2 patients, respectively. Treatment was well tolerated, although two patients required hospital admission for management of diarrhoea and one developed significant late small bowel toxicity, attributable to radiotherapy. In those undergoing R0 or R1 resection there have been no local recurrences (median follow-up 18 months). Median survival for the whole group was 23 months, although this was 44 months in those undergoing surgery. Conclusions SCPRT-delay appears to be a useful alternative to long-course pre-operative chemoradiotherapy in this high-risk group of patients.