The Koforidua Hockey Club was last Saturday crowned champions of the maiden Gladys Ayebea Hammond Memo-rial Hockey Tournament.

In an all-play-all format, Koforidua Hockey Club amassed seven points to beat Multi Sticks, who had five points.

Citizens International placed third with three points while Suhum Hockey Club placed fourth without a point.

At the school level, the girls of Suhum Presbyterian Senior High School beat Suhum Islamic Girls Senior High School with a point to nil (1-0) to emerge as winners.

Both Koforidua Hockey Club and Presbyterian Senior High School received a trophy and cer-tificate of participation while the other clubs received certificates of participation.

Speaking to the Ghanaian Times Sports, the organiser, Mr Richard Hammond, said the tournament had been instituted as a key feature of the annual Odwira festival at Suhum.

According to him, the tourna-ment was instituted in honour of her late mother, Madam Gladys Ayebea Hammond, who was the daughter of the first paramount Chief of the Suhum Traditional Area.

He explained that Madam Hammond, though an illiterate, was a sports enthusiast who be-lieved that children could be helped to realise their potentials through sports.

Mr Hammond said the aim was to whip up the interest of the youth, especially girls, in the game of hockey, stressing that "Even though hockey is an international game, Ghana is yet to register its presence there."

He said it was important that the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) paid particular attention to the least financed sports.