Warwickshire girls crowned Under 19 champions

Warwickshire's triumphant Under 19s

Warwickshire reinforced their reputation as one of the strongest development sides in the world by winning the Under 19 girl's championships in South Africa for the second time in three years.

Despite an indifferent start to the tour, where they suffered a heavy 10 wicket defeat at the hands of a Combined WP-Boland XI, Warwickshire, led by Helen Shipman acclimatised to the heat and pacy wickets to post a series of impressive wins against Western Province, Boland and South Western Country District (all South Africa) as well as UK domestic rivals Lancashire.

The final against New Zealand representative side Wellington was watched by a bumper crowd of locals as well as parents and relatives of both teams. Warwickshire batted first to score 156-9 with Shipman (44), Izzy Watson (34) and Laura Crofts (27) the mainstays of the innings. In reply, Wellington, who had enjoyed a string of convincing victories in the run up to the final, were 69 all out with Watson proving the main destroyer with 5-18 off 10 overs, leaving Warwickshire winners of the International Teams trophy by an emphatic 88 runs.

In between matches, the girls, who now form the backbone of the Warwickshire senior team which is due to compete in division two of the Liverpool Victoria County Championship in 2008, took part in township coaching and leadership projects as part of a 10 day development and learning programme.

Having raised funds to go on the tour, the girls welcomed 30 township girls to a coaching session for a few hours in a project that they designed and developed themselves with the Warwickshire Cricket Board Management team in a bid to "give something back" to the game. All 14 girls coached and helped out the youngsters then played in three mini-matches where they umpired, scored and provided on-field coaching to give the youngsters the experience of a lifetime.

They also visited the Langa township and the coaching "home" of the late Bob Woolmer and when they weren't involved in playing or coaching, spent many hours working on their own game.

The 2008 side were generally much younger than the squad that won the trophy in 2006 although some of the squad were making the visit for a second time.

The purpose of the tournament was to develop some Under-15s and Under-17s for the summer age-group programme and to augment the strength of the junior set up at those age-groups.

Warwickshire Under 15 Girls © Boyd Parker

Tour Manager and Director of Cricket (WCB) Richard Cox commented: "We had a rude awakening at the start of the trip but every girl played their part in the success that followed.

"I would like to thank Errol Simms and Kelly Evenson for their unstinting coaching efforts as well as our busy physio Jenna Mantripp. The girls will now go full steam in to the season brimming with confidence for the ECB competitions that lie ahead"

Warwickshire squad: Helen Shipman (capt), Jess Bramley, Laura Crofts, Alex Darwood , Tina Gough, Charley Green, Becky Grundy, Amy Jones, Lucy Maxwell, Liz Russell, Liz Smart (wkt), Izzy Watson, Rebecca Weller