The dates for the Hammer and Tongues St George’s invitational soccer tournament have been set for 25 and 26 May with defending champions Prince Edward being the only missing team in this year's competition. 

PE won the annual tournament last year, which is running for the sixth year but will not be available to defend their title come next Friday and Saturday at St George’s College.

But the defending champions are not available this year after reportedly withdrawing for unmentioned reasons.

The soccer tournament came to life in 2013 and this year the tournament features more than 24 teams from private, Government and mission schools.

The Peter Lovemore Trophy for the Under 20s will have a number of schools battling for honours.

A Hammer and Tongues representative said the tournament was growing and becoming better each year and people should expect a football fun experience with lots of activities.

“This time we have 24 schools because the tournament will be happening on a holiday but we normally have 20 schools.

“We have four new schools on board which are Inkomo High School, Milestone College, St John’s Chikwaka and Manyame Air Base High School.

“This year, the tournament is going to be two full days of football with lots of fun activities to add pleasure to the event.

“The standard and the competitiveness of the tournament has improved over the years and it has proved to be the most popular schools sporting event.

“The tournament was oversubscribed with many schools requesting to participate and we hope to continue expanding the tourney in our quest to nurture the young sporting talent,” he said.

Some of the teams expected to participate include St George’s A, St George’s B, Peterhouse College, Falcon College, Christian Brother College (CBC), Sodbury School, Nhowe Mission, Goromonzi High, St Ignatius College, Induna High, Masvingo High, Tynwald High, St John’s High, St Peters Kubatana, Kutama Marist Brothers, St John’s College, Westridge High, Marondera High and Mufakose High 2.

The event is supported by Garfunkels, SuperSip, Shumba Maheu, Colcom, Enbee, Mawere Sibanda Commercial Lawyers, Rooney’s, FedEx, TelOne, Nicmart, OK Zimbabwe, Schweppes, Freight World, HPG, Servco, Newsday and The Herald.