Comedian Eddie Large was yesterday given a conditional discharge for 12 months after magistrates heard how he attacked a Range Rover with a golf club in a row in a narrow country lane near his home.

But Weston-super-Mare magistrates ordered the comic to pay Range Rover driver Robert Gorton compensation totalling #1816 and to pay #40 prosecution costs.

Large, 56, appeared under his real name of Edward Hugh McGinnis, of Moor Lane, Clapton-in-Gordano, near Bristol.

He admitted smashing the rear windscreen and side window of the G-registered car in an incident on June 27.

The prosecution said he pursued the Range Rover after they met face to face in Moor Lane.

Prosecutor Brian Pixton said that Mr Gorton swore at the comic. Large went to the parked Rover and smashed the rear windscreen with a golf club as Mr and Mrs Gorton were seated in the front.

He attempted to smash the front windscreen, which did not shatter, and then smashed the driver's side window. Mr Gorton, whose address was not given in court, called the police.

Defence solicitor John Sinnott maintained that the comic acted in a panic, grabbing the first thing that came to hand as he believed Mr Gorton's Rover was reversing towards him. The normally placid comedian, he said, had felt threatened.

Mr Sinnott told the magistrates that Large's wife, Patsy, had been involved in previous confrontations in the lane with Mr Gorton, who, he claimed, had sworn at her days earlier.

She had become frightened by these encounters, he said.

After the hearing, Large said he was glad the case was over. He felt he had been treated fairly in court. But he alleged his wife had been subjected to two years of ''harassment''.

He said: ''I just want to lead a peaceful life. But I am now looking for somewhere else to live. We are going to have to move, we have been forced to. I did a wrong thing, but the provocation was something else.''

Mr Sinnott told the magistrates that his client was of good character with no previous convictions. He had been tireless in charitable work, particularly in raising cash to research children's illnesses.

Mr Sinnott maintained: ''Everyone who knows him was shocked to learn of what had taken place. He is just about the unlikeliest person on this earth to have acted as he did.''

The lane situation, he suggested, was responsible and the comedian had felt threatened.