LOL BV... personal story here.

As short as it takes to lose your water because of an unwanted leak, you'd
be *amazed* how long it takes for bloody water to drain when you want it to
:-)

I did the "shovel trick" this year when I was rebuilding my pond (and didn't
want to keep the old PVC liner), and after a frustrating long night & day, I
went out to buy me a sump pump

You can rent sump pumps BTW together with long hoses (I needed 180 ft), not
expensive, and the best way to get the water removed without causing a ruck
with your neighbours ;-) Cost of renting was something like 40 USD for a
day.

Theo

How about just cutting some holes in the liner? If you are getting rid of
the pond anyway, saving the liner is probably a worthless task. You could
cut it down below the water line as low as you can get, and then poke
holes
in the bottom with a shovel. This should drain the water out, and then you
can just fill the hole in and let the small remaining piece of liner lie.

BV.