Pub brawl erupts after Shrewsbury pool match

More than 20 men, some armed with pool cues and pint glasses, were involved in a mass brawl at a pub in Shrewsbury which left one man in hospital with head injuries, it was claimed today.

Violence erupted at the Inn on the Green pub, in Bank Farm Road, after a match in the Shrewsbury Sunday Pool League between the home side and Rock and Fountain pub in Castle Foregate.

Witnesses said tempers flared following an incident during the closing stages of the match, as the hosts led 4-3, with the game descending into a fight involving between 20 and 25 men using missiles and makeshift weapons.

Landlord Paul King, who has been co-owner since May, described the incident as being 'like a scene from a Western movie'.

Police were called at about 10pm on Sunday and a 24-year-old man was taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for treatment for a head injury.

Mr King said yobs had threatened to smash the whole pub up before police arrived.

He said: "We had football games throughout the day and then at night there was a league pool match between the Inn on the Green and the Rock and Fountain. There was a lot of banter going on and then there was an argument about a foul shot on the black to win the match and it just escalated from there.

"It was like a scene from a Western movie. There were pool cues being thrown about, people being hit with glasses, pool cues and they were threatening to smash the whole pub up.

"There was one innocent couple sitting having a quiet drink and one of the glasses landed smashing their drinks. It could have easily hit them and they were quite shaken up."

A man was arrested on suspicion of assault causing actual bodily harm in connection with the incident and was taken into custody at Shrewsbury Police Station. He was released yesterday after being given a police caution.