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.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd