New South Wales retain Australian Women's Under-19 title

New South Wales retained the Betty Wilson Shield for the twelfth consecutive year today when they defeated Victoria by 22 runs to win the final of the Australian Women's Under-19 Championship at Flinders University, Adelaide.

New South Wales batted first and made 8/169, captain Roxanne McGee top scoring with 56. Despite an innings of 75 by K.Applebee, the Victorians, who were also runners-up to NSW in last year's final, could only make 147.

Sarah Stephenson (3/10), Kate Blackwell (2/15) and Sarah Andrews (2/10) were the leading wicket-takers for New South Wales, who won five matches in a row after losing their opening game of the tournament to Queensland last week.

New South Wales' current championship run began in 1989/90 when they won what was then the Under-21 Championships. They shared the title with Victoria in 1994/95. From 1996/97 the Under-21 Championship was replaced by the present Under-19 competition, with NSW continuing to dominate.

Today's scores:

Grand Final (1st v 2nd): New South Wales 8/169 (R McGee 56, L Poulton 31, A Blackwell 28; K Applebee 3/20) defeated Victoria 147 (K Applebee 75; S Stephenson 3/10, K Blackwell 2/15, S Andrews 2/34).

Playoff for 3rd-4th: Queensland 90 (A Poole 3/7) lost to South Australia 7/91 (J Woerner 47*; B Matheson 3/20)

Playoff for 5th-6th: ACT 6/174 (K Britt 47, C Chippendale 31; L Richardson 3/21) defeated Western Australia 86 (T Lester 22; E Hassell 3/11, H Stanley 2/13)

Playoff for 7th-8th: Tasmania 159 (A Lachowicz 45, S Whyte 35; A Taylor 3/11) lost to WCA Invitational XI 5/162 (O Thornton 32*, Taylor 30).

Final Placings:

1st NSW
2nd Victoria
3rd South Australia
4th Queensland
5th ACT
6th Western Australia
7th WCA Invitational XI
8th Tasmania.