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When it comes to pub brawls Asylum can usually be found cowering behind the bar whimpering "please don't hit me, please don't hit me" over and over. Shame, then, that this lady isn't our nan.

Meet Ena Mallett a 77-year-old lollipop lady from Norfolk. By day she guides pupils of Fairhaven Primary School in South Walsham, near Great Yarmouth, across the road. By night (Thurday's mainly) she is an expert in martial arts, having amazingly become the first lady to ever reach the seventh dan in Spirit Combat International ju-jitsu. The award is so rare her new belt has to be made to order.

Spirit Combat is a form of self-defence based on ju-jitsu and incorporates other fighting styles such as boxing, judo and karate.

To gain the highly valued belt from Spirit Combat International she had to spend a day tossing hapless foes over her shoulder and applying tap out-inducing holds on all and sundry.

Every Thursday night the grappling gran instructs a group of up to 22 people in the arts of Spirit Combat International ju-jitsu at South Walsham's village hall. But Mrs Mallett, a widow, has only had to put her martial arts skills into practice once.

She was forced to grab a 14-year-old boy who had stolen some sweets from a shop she used to work at. That said, if the bar brawl kicked off and we had our adopted nan with us, she'd sort it out: "I'm always aware, wherever I am that something could happen to me Or someone Im with. I would definitely get stuck in." She told us.

When we suggested she ask to be introduced before any ju-jitsu fight as Ena "Hammertime" Mallett, the lovely lady told us the name sounded fantastic and that she would consider it.

"Everyone keeps telling me Im celebrity but I don't feel like it," she continued. "When I started karate back in 1979 we had to train for 6 hours without any water."

What a woman. Hats well and truly off...






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