ANTI-bloodsport protesters clashed with huntsmen at the annual Boxing Day Holcombe Hunt meeting at Rivington.

More than 100 members of the League Against Cruel Sports banged drums, blew whistles and waved banners as up to 40 riders set off on the hunt from Rivington Barn.

Huntsmen and demonstrators jostled each other in a series of verbal exchanges before the hunt began.

The protesters then marched onto the field in front of the horses and shouted abuse through megaphones, but the protest stopped short of violence.

The huntsmen blew bugles and rode off amid jeers from the demonstrators. One shouted: "You should hang your heads in shame. You were praying on your knees in church yesterday. Now you are out to kill God's creatures."

Despite the demonstration, hundreds of spectators, including children, turned out to watch the event. Police were on stand-by but were not needed.

Spectator Irene Davidson, aged 58, from Blackrod, said: "I've been watching this for years. It's a tradition that should never be banned."

Some protesters carried banners saying: "Total hunt ban now" and "Out foxed, out dated, out hunted", but hunt supporters cheered and waved as the hunt went ahead.

Paul Timpson, spokesman for the North-west Hunt Saboteurs Association, said: "Our protests are designed to remind the hunt and its supporters that we find their activities to be an abhorrent attack on our wildlife."

George Dickinson, joint master of the Holcombe Hunt, said: "It was a marvellous day and it went very well. The protesters made a lot of noise, but they didn't affect the hunt because we outnumbered them by 10 to one.

"It was the best field I've seen for 25 years. We had 80 riders and we'd usually be lucky to see 35, and we had around 500 spectators."

"The hunt will go ahead next year unless the Government puts a total ban on hunting. The Boxing Day turnout shows that people are still interested." An estimated 250,000 people -- supporters and demonstrators -- gatherered across the country yesterday for what could be the last Boxing Day hunt meetings. A controversial Hunting Bill will ban hare coursing and stag hunting. Fox hunting would be allowed if individual hunts can justify it and satisfy cruelty tests.

But the bill faces a stormy passage through Parliament.

A Mori poll commissioned by the pressure group Campaigning to Protect Hunted Animals suggested 80 percent of British people thought hunting with dogs was cruel.

It asked 1,000 adults which phrases applied most to hunting and found 82 per cent described it as cruel or inhumane, while only 27 per cent described it as enjoyable or humane.

Anti-bloodsport campaigners say the results show the law should be changed. They have branded the present bill a "fudge."

Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, added: "Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of British people oppose hunting with dogs, usually on the basis that it is cruel and unnecessary.

"We will not accept a compromise on cruelty and nor we believe will the majority of the public."

But Allan King, aged 47, from Adlington, said: "I've never been before. It's sickening. I won't come again."