fans fought with baseball bats, a trial heard yesterday.

Spectators joined in the free-for-all and a big "bar fight'' blew up, Supreme Court heard.

Roger Lightbourne, 25, denies wielding a baseball bat in the brawl and injuring four men. Aaron Woolridge, one of his alleged victims, ended up with a fractured skull.

Lightbourne, of Sound View Road, Somerset, took the stand yesterday wearing a white T-shirt and jeans and with "Mad Max'' tatooed on his left bicep.

He said he went to a reggae party at St. George's Beach Club in April, 1991 with his brother Randy, Randy's brother-in-law Reid Jones, Colin Francis and Ali Smith.

He denied fighting with anyone at the party or afterwards, saying he and his brother wanted to stop the brawl.

He was hit with a bat in the club parking lot after the session, he said. He became the main focus of "Bay guys'' in the crowd and hit them in an attempt to get away.

He said he did not hit anyone with a bat or bite anyone. He also denied butting anyone, adding Smith had been charged with that.

He was unaware two baseball bats had been put in the group's car, he told the court.

And he dismissed allegations he tried to drive away in a car after it was stopped by Police after the brawl.

He and his brother were continually mistaken for each other, he said. But he did not see Randy hit anyone with a bat. Nor did Randy restrain him from hitting anyone.

Lightbourne told Crown counsel Mr. Diarmuid Doorly: "I've been in many fights in my time and I've won, but this time I haven't done anything and now I've been charged.

"Being on remand at Casemates is the hardest thing. I've been up at Casemates for 6 months waiting to come down here to clear myself. If I did it I wouldn't be afraid to do the time, but I didn't.'' Jones, of Somerset, told the court he put the bats in the car for protection.

"If you look in the average person's car you would see some sort of protection,'' he said.

He admitted being charged with fighting in public and possession of a bat and being fined $500.

He said he was confronted by two men after the party and one started waving a cricket bat.

He saw Francis appear with a baseball bat and snatched it from him. But Randy slapped him to the ground and took it off him, later giving it to a bouncer.

Smith had a bat but Roger did not, he said.

Jones and Francis told the trial they could not remember how the bats got back in the car -- where Police later found them.

Francis, of Sound View Road, Somerset, said he and friends had played softball with them earlier that day.

Randy, 27, gave his address as Casemates. He said he was smaller than Roger but wore identical clothes to the party.

He said the fighting began with a confrontation between Jones and Woolridge.