] Cape Town - A young hockey player and part-time waitress
] used her hockey stick on a would-be burglar and nearly
] beat him to a pulp on Thursday morning.
]
] Shortly after the attempted robbery, Leigh Fourie, 18,
] said she was terrified when she pounced on the would-be
] burglar. She threatened him, called him names and hit him
] with the hockey stick.
]
] Fourie said she woke up in her parents' home in Strand
] about 09:15. Her mother, Evelyn Fourie, had already gone
] to work in Stellenbosch.
]
] "I was drinking a milkshake in the lounge when I heard
] glass breaking. Someone was trying to break into my
] mother's bedroom next door. I crept to my bedroom, closed
] the door and 'phoned my mother, who told me to go outside
] and call the neighbours."
]
] Fourie said she decided to use her hockey stick instead
] because shouting wasn't going to help. Nobody would have
] heard her above the wind. "I ran down the corridor
] shouting, rushing towards the man who had in the meantime
] entered the lounge. "I waved my hockey stick in the air
] and started hitting him on his head, neck, arms -
] wherever I could land a shot. He tried to get away and
] pulled a knife from his pocket, but I told him he should
] put it away, because the police were outside."
]
] Fourie said the