HUNDREDS of bloods sports supporters from North and East Yorkshire are expected to converge on London on Monday.

They are planning to join a demonstration, organised by the Countryside Alliance, timed to coincide with the reading of the second half of the controversial Hunting Bill, calling for a ban on hare coursing and stag hunting.

Demonstrators will gather in Hyde Park, opposite Knightsbridge tube station, from 2pm. The rally will continue until 6pm complete with a flotilla of boats on the Thames lobbying MPs ending with a "symbolic finale."

Hundreds in the hare coursing industry across North and East Yorkshire are expected to attend the rally, including Jackie Teal, who runs a greyhound training kennel employing five people in Malton. "If they banned coursing it would be a disaster," said Mrs Teal.

"Coursing is not what people think it is. More than 80 per cent of the hares get away and the sport is more about the dogs ability and agility for which they score points.

"And it makes no sense to ban legal coursing when anyone can go out and kill a rabbit with dogs or a gun.

"I'd like to see what the Government's 'incontrovertible evidence' is to ban it since no such evidence has emerged either from the independent Burns Inquiry or the Government's own recent hunting hearings."

Updated: 12:14 Saturday, December 14, 2002