clashed after a reggae session, a Supreme Court trial was told yesterday.

Some of the blows could be heard 15 feet away. And other wounds were inflicted by biting, head-butting and karate-kicking, the court heard.

Before the trial got under way yesterday jury members were asked to declare they had no gang connections.

The request came from defence lawyer Mr. Archie Warner, who said the fight was between "posses'' from two ends of the Island who supported rival sound systems.

One group was connected with Harlem Hi-Power, who played at the session at St.

George's Beach Club, he said. The other was from Somerset.

Roger Eugene Lightbourne, 25, of Sound View Road, Somerset, was arrested outside the hospital emergency room after the brawl.

He denies wounding Aaron Woolridge with intent to do grievous bodily harm. He also denies causing grievous bodily harm to brothers Sean Bobby Smith and Angelo Smith and causing bodily harm to Sean David Hollis, all members of Harlem Hi-Power. He also pleaded innocent to fighting in public and having an offensive weapon -- a baseball bat.

Woolridge, a carpenter of Verdmont Road, Smith's Parish, told the trial he went to the dance just after midnight on April 14, 1991. He knew people in Harlem Hi-Power and stayed until the end at around 2 a.m.

"I saw a group of guys coming down and it looked like they had bats in their hands. I was going to my car through the crowd and I got hit on the back of my neck.

"It felt like someone had dropped a brick on my head. I dropped to the ground and I tried to get up and I got hit again. I think I got hit about three times on my neck and on my back, and the fourth time my head was split open.'' He was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital with a fractured skull. "To be truthful I thought I was going to die. It's a feeling you can't really explain.'' Questioned by Mr. Warner, Woolridge said he did not drink, despite an apparent statement to Police that he had an Elephant beer.

He also denied joining in a fight to help the "Harlem posse''.

"It's not my Harlem posse,'' he said. "I went there for a party.'' Raymond Trott, of Camp Hill, Southampton, was working as a bouncer at the session.

He said the party had a "great atmosphere'', spoiled only when a Jamaican man was punched in the face. The Jamaican pointed out two men in black tracksuits who Trott learned were brothers Roger and Randy Lightbourne. The Jamaican said Roger had assaulted him.

Roger, said Trott, had a scar over his right eye, was about five foot 10 and dark-skinned. Randy was taller, maybe six foot.

After the party he heard shouting and screaming and saw Roger Lightbourne swinging a baseball bat wildly. Angelo Smith, Trott's friend, seemed to be unconscious and was bleeding from his head.

Trott said he intervened to protect Smith from Lightbourne, who was also held back by his brother Randy.

Mr. Warner challenged Trott on his identification of Smith's attacker, denying his client had a scar over his eye.

Trott left the witness box and pointed to a mark above Lightbourne's right eye, on his forehead.

But Lightbourne told the court: "I just got that, in a bike accident. If he saw that he must have been in a time machine.'' Mr. Warner told Trott he was mistaken. Randy Lightbourne had a scar over his eye and was shorter than Roger, he said.

Trott insisted the man in the dock was the attacker he saw that night. "I remember seeing him confronting me with a baseball bat. He was the one swinging it around and hitting my friend.'' The court also heard Harlem fan Litanya Smith, of Deepdale Road West, Pembroke, identify Roger Lightbourne as the man she saw holding a bat and kicking her cousin Sean Bobby Smith, who was on the ground.

And Harlem Hi-Power member Nyquill Lambert, an apprentice waiter of Long Ridge Pass, Devonshire, said he saw Roger Lightbourne butt and bite Sean Hollis and then hit Aaron Woolridge and Angelo Smith with a baseball bat.

Lambert denied his group was fighting another group. "We had no intention of any fighting going on at all. We were just there to play music.''