<b>The annual Suffolk Vole Tossing Championship went ahead at Saxmundham yesterday despite protests from animal rights campaigners.</b>

Nearly 50 protestors turned up for the popular vole tossing spectacle, which was won by local farmer Jim Devlin after he managed to hurl his pet vole Herbert 54 metres across the ploughed field course.


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Vole tossing, which has been a tradition in rural East Anglia since the first recorded event in 1216, has attracted protests in recent years from campaigners who claim the sport is harmful to the small rodents.

But supporters insist it is rare for the voles to be injured - and that's only after a prolonged dry spell when the earth is hard.

Each contestant is given three attempts to throw -- or toss -- his vole as far across the field as possible, using no run-up or artificial aids.

Most catch the voles in traps in the days before the annual Suffolk Vole Tossing Championship, but some train their own voles for weeks to be more aerodynamic in the air.

Mr Devlin, 37, has trained Herbert for that very reason. He said: "When I throw him he tucks his little legs into his side so that he goes off like a bullet.

"It's reckoned this gives me an extra three metres, because untrained voles tend to wave their limbs around in panic, and I'm afraid that just slows them down."

<center><a href="http://www.suffolkgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/vole-tossing-e1477990363813.jpg"><img src="http://www.suffolkgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/vole-tossing-e1477990363813.jpg" alt="Suffolk Vole Tossing champion, herbert" width="777" height="612" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5017" /></a><i>Valued vole: Herbert, who won the Vole Tossing Championship for Jim Devlin</center></i><br><br>

There were 46 entries in this year's championship, including seven women. Second to Mr Devlin was last year's winner Baz Dreyton, 33, from Leiston, while third was Alan Preece, 49, from Norfolk.

They all managed to complete the event without any trouble with the noisy protestors, who waved banners claiming the "sport" was cruel to voles.

Lizzie Day, chairperson of Save Our Voles, said: "This is a barbaric event. There is no control over how humanely the voles are trapped, and even if they are not injured there is no evidence they are not psychologically damaged by being thrown repeatedly through the air.

"Although we are relieved no voles were apprently injured today, this has not always been the case."

Most of the voles are released back into the wild after the championship, although those that show promise are usually kept in the hope they live long enough to compete again next year.

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