Oxfordshire's hunts, now reborn as hound exercise clubs, met as usual for the traditional start of the hunting season on Saturday and insisted their activities were within the law.

About 90 members of the Bicester and Whaddon Chase Hound Exercise Club met last Thursday for their opening exercise and 60 riders gathered again on Saturday for a meeting.

Club secretary Robert Vallance said: "We were meeting as we normally would at the start of the hunting season.

"Our main aims at the moment are to act at all times within the law and to maintain the structure and integrity of the club with regard to staff and the hounds until such time as the law is changed.

"Our activities simulate hunting. We create artificial scent lines for the hounds. This way we're still providing sport for our members, but we're within the law.

"Our numbers are still holding up well. The support we're receiving is stronger than ever before."

The club plans to meet three or four times a week in its territory in north Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and south Warwickshire.

Penny Little, an anti-hunting campaigner who lives in Great Haseley and is county chairman of Protect Our Wild Animals, was in Warwickshire over the weekend to monitor hunts.

She said: "Hunt monitors need more back-up from the police. We're very vulnerable. We're on the receiving end of a considerable amount of abuse."