A trap for young and old players

Rugby aside, New Zealanders are not great exponents of overkill, which is why the little-used power to crush boy racers' cars has been massively superseded by the deterrent employed by a genteel county in England.

- Jane Clifton

Recent complaints from indignant drivers have brought to light a little-known scheme in a leafy Cambridgeshire village, which, while conceived a little later than New Zealand's, has been considerably more successful.

In St Ives, a literal car trap has been installed. It's a massive slanting pothole into which any car that sneaks across its bus-only lane will plunge. Such is the damage sustained that a significant number of the 60-odd cars so far caught have had to be sent to the crushers.

An average of five cars a week still get trapped, suggesting the deterrent factor after 12 years is ripe for review.

But the local authority was unrepentant when challenged about the measure. It said it had erected a "Car Trap" sign, and people who ignored it, or who could not fathom what it meant, or who were shocked to be suddenly imprisoned in an inverted bollard, should not be on the road.