The Karen Slowe Cup’s second edition, which was organized by the Slowe family and the Greater Accra Handball Association, was held from August 15 to August 20, 2022. The competition was first held in 2018 and was designed to occur every four years.
To promote the civilian clubs and test the viability of the long-term proposal to organize it every four years, only the civilian clubs in Greater Accra participated in the inaugural edition. Based on the results, the competition was expanded to include the services teams this year, exactly 4 years after it first started, to allow for the participation of additional teams.
This time, there were 12 teams total—6 service teams and 6 clubs for the general public. Included in this group are the Ghana Police, Ghana Prisons, Fire Service, Ghana Army, Ghana Navy, Ghana Airforce, El-Wak Wings, Great Fingers, Cantonment Youth, Legonite, and Kaneshie Royals.
Twelve clubs were divided into four in the men’s division, while eight clubs were divided into two in the women’s division.
In the men’s division, two teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinals of the competition from Day 1 to Day 4, while in the women’s division, the top two clubs from each group advanced directly to the semifinals.
All of the guests, including the Slowe family, who arrived in Ghana the night before the opening ceremony, were present at the competition’s opening ceremony on day two. They were cordially welcomed into the nation by some handball aficionados who received them at the Kotoka International Airport.
Seeing all these famous people grace the event was a thrilling experience.
The newly elected HAG executives, led by the president, Hon. Nii Lante Bannerman, the GAHA executives, Nana Agyeman Opamboum 1, the patron of GAHA, and some senior officers of the various security services were notable individuals.
The following groups—Ghana Army, Kaneshie Royals, Fire Service, Ghana Airforce, Ghana Police, Great Fingers, Ghana Prisons, and Cantonment Youth—have qualified for the quarterfinals. The following scorelines:
The police team advanced to the finals in both divisions on day 5 of the competition, but its rivals, prisoners, were able to secure a spot in the finals in the women’s division by defeating Army ladies and losing to Firemen in the men’s division to play the third and fourth place.
The principal organizer, Allister Slowe, made a special statement about an increase in prize money before the commencement of the semifinals.
¢10,000.00 for the first-placed team, ¢5,000.00 for the runner-up. The team that finished third: ¢2,000.
The 3rd and 4th place matches were played early in the morning on Day 6, which also happened to be the last day of the competition. Before the finals began, a curtain-raiser match was played between the veterans and the Cantonment Youth lads.
Army women defeated Navy women by a score of 18 to 12 goals to win bronze in the competition, along with medals and the third-place cash prize of ¢2,000.00.
Prisons defeated Army in the men’s third and fourth game by a narrow score of 27-28 goals, earning them a cash award and third-place medals.
In the women’s final, Policewomen competed against their rival Prisons, but Prisons women outperformed them and doubled their trophy haul this year.
By a score of 30-28, Prisons defeated Police in the final. The best female player and best goalie of the competition were selected as two members of the Prisons team. To that end, they had a cash award and a trophy plague.
The current knockout champions, Extinguishers, secured a spot against Police in the championship game. To win their first trophy of the year, the Policemen brilliantly defeated team Fire by a score of 29-28 goals.
The tournament’s top players and goalkeepers were decided to be Police’s Gerald Folley and Bernard Ankrah Twumasi.
The fair play team trophy was given to Cantonment Youth. All of the civil clubs that took part in the competition received certificates and an unknown sum.
