It may be akin to shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted, but at long last it appears that something is being done to combat the sort of antisocial behaviour that has ranged from sportsmen appearing in the news for the wrong reasons to families being left heartbroken over the loss of a loved one.

The sort of aggressive approach at rooting out the troublemakers that Alfred Maybury has promised at Somerset Cricket Club is to be applauded. But more than that, it is to be repeated all over the Island.

If not, it would be lip service at best; passing on one club’s bad eggs to another club at worst.

Boulevard Community Club, through the persuasion of its president, Dr Lou Matthews, took the brave decision a few years back to sacrifice success on the field by ridding the club of those whom the club believed were dragging its reputation through the mud.

“It was a tough and courageous stance for us to take, but a very important one,” he told The Royal Gazette at the time.

But what he added was more pertinent to the issues of today when he said: “Unless we’re all in this together, it’s really difficult to make a lasting impact. It’s no good if a guy can go from my club to your club.”

That was two years ago. However, a relay race cannot be run if the baton does not make it beyond the first handover.

The counter-argument since Dr Matthews and Boulevard took a stand was that their malcontents had moved on and had been accepted by other clubs.

It is indeed unfortunate if that is the case, but clubs et al now can no longer afford to dig their collective heads in the sand.

“Not my club; well, yes, your club, too.”

“Not my man; well, yes, your man, too.”

And the classic: “Not my son; well, yes, your son, too.”

The sympathisers who believed that club life would give a necessary outlet to those who are vulnerable to street life and the ills that are attached to it can now be cast to the margins.

Not outcast. Because the views of all are to be listened to. But, rather, marginalised.

The reason being that they have been let down by those whom they have attempted to help; those whom they have given safe haven to make a positive contribution to the club as a whole, not only in the winning of a game of football, cricket or tiddlywinks.

The hope that getting someone to play sport would get at-risk youngsters off the streets has been unfulfilled because the streets have now been brought to the clubs. So much so that ludicrous talk of certain clubs not being able to compete in certain parts of the Island without fear of trouble before, during or after the matches has become part of our lexicon.

That cannot be acceptable in a law-abiding society. We should not be able to link Club A with this gang, Club B with that gang, and so on. But these links are being made — in cricket and in football — and it has to end.

The Bermuda Police Service’s job is hard enough in convincing the public, and families in particular, not to turn a blind eye when serious criminal activity is suspected among someone close without having to cut a swath through the fabric of a club that is filled mostly with innocents.

To borrow a thought from a recent editorial that appeared on our OpEd page: “Too many negative aspects of our culture — from glamorised depictions of violence in the media to the prevalence of widespread alcohol and drug abuse among young Bermudians — dovetail with poor economic and social conditions to fuel a destructive cycle of violence which can never be entirely broken. But it’s one that can continue to be minimised, and not only through stepped-up police work.”

The race is still to be run. It does not matter if it is Usain Bolt or Chen Ding, the Olympic race-walking champion, waiting for the final changeover. It is essential, basically, that the baton gets there.