Two men were jailed yesterday for wielding a machete and sword during the Wellington Oval football match brawl.

Wolde Trott, 21, of Tribe Road, Paget, and Kavon Earlston Smith, 25, of Horseshoe Road, Southampton, each received nine month sentences for going armed to a public place in a manner to cause terror.

They also received six month sentences for possessing an offensive weapon, both sentences to run concurrently.

The brawl took place at the Friendship Trophy in St. George's on April 4, when around 40 men battled it out on the field with blades, sticks, and stones.

Trott and Smith have been incarcerated ever since.

Even though sentenced to nine months in prison, Magistrate William Francis said the four months they already served shall now be "taken into consideration".

"I have taken what you said into consideration, especially your apology. However, in sentencing, one has to take the alarm and great concern caused to the public and balance all that out," Mr. Francis said.

Before their sentence was handed out the accused were allowed to address Magistrates' Court. "I am sorry to the community in whole, to the people and children who had to witness what went down at Wellington Oval," Trott said. "This is my first offence. Please take into consideration my time already done at Westgate."

Then it was Smith's turn to apologise: "Even though I stand here with a non guilty plea ... I have done things in my life I have not been punished for ... I have been in jail for four months. A lot of actions could have put me in a very bad predicament with the law. I am a father to a young daughter. I want her to grow up proud of her father."

Two other men, Kijah Russell Butterfield and Jamie Ford, had identical charges but were released last month as the defence had no case to answer.

However, Mr. Francis found Trott and Smith guilty on both charges. Smith was accused of brandishing the sword, Trott the machete.

He found their stories about finding the weapons on the ground unbelievable, pointing out: "You gave the excuse you brandished (the weapons) to save an unconscious man."

He thought it more likely they had the weapons to "attack (John Trott) and not defend anyone against that man".

Mr. Francis said Smith gave two contradictory stories as evidence: first he said he found the sword "near the scoreboard". But soon said he found it "down on the field under a gold-coloured sign".

Trott claimed "minutes after a number of men rushed on the field, he happened to jump down to where a number of weapons had dropped".

Mr. Francis said he found this "most unlikely".

Their lawyer Leo Mills still believed his clients "did not go into the field to cause havoc or with weapons. The two young men come before the court with clean hands. Both are remorseful."

Crown counsel Shade Subair wished to "highlight the aggravating factors ... Firstly it was an offence that had a devastating effect on the Bermuda public at large at any event".

"It was an offence which caused much terror to both women and children as seen in exhibit three, the videotape..."