BOXING Day is traditionally the biggest day in the hunting calendar and, this year, its leaders are aiming to reach for the sky and make December 26, 2003 the biggest day in hunting's history.

At least that's the plan.

With proposals to regulate, ban or leave alone hunting with dogs, hounds or whatever, stuck in the treacle that is the parliamentary process, the Countryside Alliance is calling for an all shoulders to the wheel show of support on Boxing Day this year.

"We hope thousands of people will go along to the meets of fox hounds, beagles and bassets throughout Worcestershire and Herefordshire," said Clare Rowson, the CA's West Midlands regional director.

"Nationally we expect the figure to be hundreds of thousands and to send out a very positive message to the politicians. We want this to be the biggest day in the history of hunting, especially following the success of Declaration Day on November 1."

D-Day, as the Alliance called it, was the day when around 50,000 hunt supporters - including 4,000 who gathered on the Three Counties showground at Malvern - signed the Hunting Declaration committing themselves to "passive opposition" if hunting was even banned and even accepting they may go prison.

Boxing Day is intended to take this process one step further and hunts have been asked to make sure their meets are well advertised and to issue an open invitation for anyone to go along. Cards are also to be handed out at the meets, basically saying "Thank you for coming and we'd love to see you again".

After decades of just bumbling along, faced by the threat of Government action against it, hunting has suddenly become, in modern parlance, very "pro-active". In other words, it is out there pitching its case.

Recently, Newcomers Days, for people who have never hunted before, were held throughout the country and attracted 3,000 new followers. Of course, all won't go again, but for some this December 26 could be their first Boxing Day meet.

"It is an ideal way to take part in a celebration that had remained unchanged for centuries, watch the work of hounds and huntsman and work off the excesses of Christmas Day," Clare added,

"Hunts are proud of their way of life and the good they do for our countryside, wildlife, communities and the rural economy."

Naturally not everyone agrees, for hunting has long been the one topic guaranteed to bring bile into the most harmonious of dinner parties, social gatherings or even conversations over the back garden fence.

Worcester's MP Michael Foster has been trying to ban it ever since he was elected to Parliament in 1997 and was recently accorded some kind of accolade by the Countryside Alliance for his efforts. The organisation named him as Ace of Clubs in its playing card pack of the 54 "most prejudiced" MPs or people they love to hate most. It could have been worse. He could have been Queen of Hearts, although that was always unlikely.

Either way, Mr Foster is obviously quite right when he says: "The House of Commons has voted overwhelmingly to bring hunting to an end, so let's get on with it."

The trouble occurs when you add the votes on the matter in the House of Lords and then the scales tip the other way. Even if no Tories had opposed it, the recent Bill to ban hunting that went before the Upper Chamber would have been defeated by the votes of Labour Lords and others alone. It must have been a message not lost on Government leaders.

In the meantime, Boxing Day beckons once more. For details, click on to www.countryside-alliance.org