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Simba Jemwa, Sports Reporter
THERE are 16 clubs in the running for the 2022 Chibuku Super Cup competition but the trophy will be heading into one trophy cabinet.

In the event Highlanders wins, it will be the seventh time they have got their hands on the cup.

But, even though the Chibuku Super Cup is a tournament with a long and rich history since 1966 to be precise, the teams are playing for a prize which is nowhere near the priceless age of this tournament.

All the Premiership teams are taking part in the tournament that made memories and defined careers when it was still just called the Chibuku Trophy.

There are Chibuku moments that dwarf other football moments in our country’s rich football history and here are the stories behind some of those moments in no particular order!

1966: A clash of two countries in one

In 1966, the world of football, the Zimbabwean world of football at least, witnessed the very first Chibuku Trophy.

Two teams from different parts of the country bumped into each other in the corridors as they left the changing rooms and 90 minutes later, Cam and Motor Mine had beaten Bulawayo Callies 2-1 in the final.

This was the first final in the history of this piece of silverware.

1968: Three legged final

In 1968, Callies and Saint Pauls perhaps played out the most dramatic Chibuku Trophy in the history of the Chibuku Trophy.

Who would have imagined that one final could be played not once, not twice but THREE times! Not even the founders of football could have seen this coming!

Yes, it took three matches to separate Callies and Saint Pauls to find the Chibuku Trophy winner of 1968.

The first game ended 1-1 and the rules of the day called for a replay and replay it was! Game two of the mini-series resulted in a goalless draw and yet another replay was ordered.

Finally, game three produced a clear-cut winner after Callies shipped four goals past their opponents without reply.

1983 and 1985: Defunct two-time champion

When Arcadia won their first Chibuku trophy in 1983, little did they know that they would win it again two years later.

But in the same breadth, little did they know that sustained periods of upheavals meant that they have gone defunct, born again, defunct again and then just exist as a football has been.

1988: Whodunnit ?

This was a special year for Zimbabwe Saints! Not only did they win the league title, but a few months before this honour was bestowed upon them, a little man named Jimmy Phiri rose high above the likes of Ephraim Chawanda and Alexander Maseko to power home a header to give his side a 1-0 victory over cross town rivals, Highlanders at Barbourfields Stadium.

Many in the stands only found OUT the goal scorer when this paper published the match report the following day!

A lot of ‘whodunnit’ was the question of the day in the shebeens – Jimmy Phiri scored?

A head from a corner? With all of Bosso’s defence in attendance?

And his brutish teammates also going up for the same ball? Yeah ‘whodunnit’ indeed!

The Chibuku Super Cup – in all its incarnations, has always been a coveted prize passed between one victorious club to the next for more than 50 years.

— @RealSimbaJemwa