COMMONWEALTH Games organisers were today accused of demeaning the people of Lancashire after volunteers were told to greet athletes with the phrase: "Hiya, our kid!"

But organisers said there was to be no standard greeting at the event and the matter was the result of a huge misunderstanding.

Volunteers, including people from East Lancashire, gathered at Owen's Park, Manchester, for a training day.

But some were left with the impression that "Hiya, our kid!" -- a representation of northern culture -- was being adopted as the standard greeting for visiting athletes.

Clitheroe health studio proprietor Vicky Lee, one of a team heading the gym at Owen's Park, which will house 3,000 athletes, was one of several sporting and medical professionals from East Lancashire who attended the training day with more than 1,000 other people.

Vicky, who has run the Lee Carter Health Studio for 20 years and is an expert in the use of free weights, said: "We were given a series of lectures on how to deal with everything from medical emergencies to terrorist attacks and they also impressed upon us the need to make the event fun.

"I have to stress the Commonwealth Games has been brilliantly organised from start to finish and I am really looking forward to it. It will be a superb event, whatever greetings we use"

"They told us the standard greeting at the Sydney Olympics was, G'day, how's it going? and the greeting for the Commonwealth Games would be, Hiya, our kid. The place just went quiet. I couldn't believe what we were being asked to do."

Another volunteer, who did not wish to be named, agreed with Vicky and said she was embarrassed by any suggestion that volunteers used the phrase.

And Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans described the proposed greeting as "demeaning and pathetic claptrap."

"It belittles the volunteers, who are giving up their time to do a fabulous job and don't need to turn themselves into a caricature for the sake of fun. I'm amazed they haven't been asked to wear cloth caps and clogs, as well.

"The genuine warmth of the volunteers should be enough, without gimmicks like this. I will be at the opening ceremony and if anyone says, Hiya, our kid, they had better get on their starting blocks. Thankfully, the Commonwealth Games will be a huge success, despite this nonsense," he said.

A spokesman for the Commonwealth Games said there had been a huge misunderstanding and it had never been the intention of games organisers to devise a standard greeting.

"It was suggested during the training day that volunteers used Hiya! as a greeting. The phrase Hiya, our kid! was an off-the-cuff remark and not intended to be taken seriously.