A LEIGH pub was transformed in to a 'Wild West saloon' when at least 20 customers started fighting, Bolton Crown Court was told.

Glasses were thrown and bar stools used as weapons, said prosecutor Alaric Bassano.

One man was knocked unconscious and another taken to hospital with head wounds after being hit with a glass in the fight at the Village Inn, Green Lane, Higher Fold.

Landlord John Rowland was punched in the face and his wife was also hit by a glass.

The brawl started when Darren Wilkes, 24, of Pond Street, Lowton St Mary's, got in to a fight with another customer.

Although Wilkes did not take part in the general melee - he had been ejected from the premises - he pleaded guilty in court to violent disorder by punching the landlord in the face and throwing a glass which hit another man.

This sparked off the general fighting in which "at least 20 men were involved" said Mr Bassano.

Ordering Wilkes to do 200 hours community service and pay £350 compensation to the man he hit with a glass, Judge Brian Lewis told him he had escaped a prison sentence by "a hair's breadth".

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