A POOL player has been cleared of wounding a fellow player at an Oxford snooker hall.

Edmund Aldworth admitted hitting Matthew Challen with his aluminium pool-cue case but said it was in self-defence.

Jurors at Oxford Crown Court yesterday took under two hours to agree with the 46-year-old defendant and acquit him of wounding with intent and an alternative charge of unlawful wounding.

The four-day trial heard a confrontation took place between two rival pool teams at Riley’s in Cowley last September.

Mr Challen and his friend Rhys Freemire, who play for the Catherine Wheel at Sandford on Thames, clashed with members of the Blackbird pub team including Mr Aldworth, Roger Goodall and Kenny Broster.

Jurors heard Mr Challen had drunk about eight pint-sized bottles of cider.

Mr Aldworth, from Wheatley Road, Forest Hill, said he hit Mr Challen twice to stop him kicking Mr Goodall.