BOXING Day festivities at a Blackburn pub turned sour when a fracas broke out on the premises.

Punches were thrown and damage caused on the night two men were ejected. Scotsmen Graeme Barrie and Paul Hopkins later made their way back towards the Brownhill Arms pub, the second man carrying two kitchen knives, a court heard.

Hopkins was sent to prison for eight months while his co-defendant was given a community sentence when the pair appeared at Preston Crown Court.

The 23-year-olds, both of Peridot Close, Blackburn, had both earlier pleaded guilty to affray relating to events on Boxing Day night at Christmas, 2002.

Nick Courtney, prosecuting, said the two defendants were at the pub that Boxing Day night. Barrie, who appeared the worse for drink, collided with someone's girlfriend.

The boyfriend asked him to calm down and the defendant is said to have responded by striking him in the face with an open hand. The other man punched Barrie twice.

Both defendants were ejected from the premises and a window was broken. But Barrie and Hopkins were later seen heading back to the pub, where Hopkins produced two kitchen knives and swung them at two people who retreated into the premises. Police later arrested the defendants at their address.

The two defence barristers asked for non-prison sentences to be passed.

They pointed to the fact that the pair had kept out of trouble during the past 13 months.

Richard Bennett, for Hopkins, said he had broken pub windows in temper, in trying to defray the involvement of others with Barrie.

"It is unforgiveable that he should have returned brandishing knives. The whole thing got completely out of hand. They were two lads from Scotland in a strange pub."

Simon Newell, for Barrie, said: "He acted improperly and, with hindsight, badly when manhandled out of the pub. It developed into a full scale fracas."

Barrie was sentenced to 18 months community rehabilitation and 100 hours community punishment. He will also be subjected to a six months nightly curfew from 8pm to 7am.