Fox-hunters took to the North-East countryside for their traditional Boxing Day ride yesterday, warning Prime Minister Tony Blair: "We'll see you again next year."

Alnwick's Percy Hunt was among a cluster of gatherings - possibly the last legal seasonal hunts with hounds - across Northumberland.

But there was a message of defiance from both huntsmen and women and the crowd of almost 100 hunt followers and well-wishers who turned out at the village pub in Newton-on-the-Moor to see the riders off.

Fortified with a few glasses of their trademark Percy Specials - a heady mix of whisky and cherry brandy - few believed the ban would now come into force in February as originally planned. It was revealed last week that the Government would not oppose an injunction application by the Countryside Alliance while the organisation pursues legal challenges to the legislation - putting back by months the start of a ban.

Warehouse owner Charles Bucknall, from Embleton, was there to hunt alongside junior members of the Percy Hunt Pony Club, which he oversees.

"Blair would like this to be the last Boxing Day hunt, but we doubt if he will get his wish," said Mr Bucknall, accompanied by wife Julia.

"Hunts like the Percy are a community effort, and that spirit will never be defeated."

Countryside Alliance spokesman Richard Dodd said more than 2,000 turned out at the start of the Tynedale Hunt in Corbridge, Northumberland.

He said: "There are normally about 1,000 to 1,500 on Boxing Day.

"The mood was one of making sure this date is in our diary for next year."

Mr Dodd said large numbers were reported at other hunts in the region including about 600 people at the South Durham Hunt in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency.

At the Percy Hunt, joint master Michael Hutchinson said: "We now have more riders and onlookers than for a very long time and that, I believe, shows the strength of feeling in the countryside."

Midwife Mary Bell travelled over 400 miles from Bournemouth to her native Northumberland to watch her two brothers ride with the hunt.

"It's not that the Government has misunderstood the hunting issue, they have misrepresented us," she said. "There aren't as many landowners and farmers here as ordinary working people."

Bolam sport shooter Hugh Cheswright said: "This is a community activity which is very important to the fabric of the countryside."

Page 2: A glorious spectacle - but will it be the last time?