IT’S difficult to imagine a more quintessentially English scene.

A young rider and mount make their way from the ford at Kempsey into Old Road South.

The peace is shattered by the rattle of an anti-socially tuned car so beloved of today’s youth.

Within seconds, the car has turned down Squire’s Walk, screamed around the corner and narrowly missed the young woman and her steed.

The weekend before, I witnessed similarly idiotic behaviour on roads thronged with pedestrians during a village walkabout.

It’s high time the police clamped down on these so-called ‘boy racers,’ a grossly inadequate term for young men who daily put the lives of other people at risk.