A CHILDREN'S sports programme and an evening dance will become a regular feature of Ambleside Sports following the success of Saturday's sports fun day at the town's rugby club.

Youngsters took part in flat races, boys' sack, girls' skipping and 'round the ring' events with 120 prizes and souvenir copies of the history of the sports distributed.

The evening dance also proved popular and organisers plan to make both part of the full sports in 2002.

Ambleside Sports was a casualty of the foot-and-mouth crisis but the spirit of the sports and its traditional events lived on at the fun day which featured live music, a car boot sale, juggling, Lakeland wrestling and ju-jitsu.

The musical contribution from the New Riverside Jazz Band gave the event a relaxed, carnival atmosphere and there was plenty of other entertainment laid on to interest both young and old.

Alf Harriman, secretary of The Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling Association, brought a demonstration team of young academy wrestlers to the event and gave a talk on the history, holds and tactics of the sport, with demonstrations from his trainee wrestlers.

The Lakeland Ju-Jitsu academy gave demonstrations and there was a juggling workshop by the Ambleside jugglers' shop, Jester's.

There were also fairground-type stalls and entertainments.

"It was just so great to see so many people," sports committee secretary Mike Blackburn said.

" The grant we received from the Spirit of Cumbria, with assistance from the North West Development and European Commission, gave us the opportunity to provide a major event for visitors and local people at a time when so many others had to be cancelled."

All proceeds from the fun day will be ploughed back into next year's event on August 1.