New Zealand retained the Women's World Cup yesterday with a 19-9 victory over England at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona.

Shelley Rae's kicking kept England in contention in a tight first half but the Black Ferns edged away with tries from Monique Hirovanaa and Cheryl Waaka.

Rae cancelled out two Tammi Wilson penalties with one of her own and the first drop goal of the tournament before adding another penalty to edge England ahead. But Hirovanaa put the Kiwis back in front when she spotted a gap seven minutes from time and crossed to give her side an 11-9 half-time lead.

Waaka extended the advantage to seven when she went over six minutes after the restart and the Black Ferns managed to hold on despite the sin-binning of Victoria Heighway.

Hannah Myers completed the scoring when she added a penalty in injury time.

Scotland, who beat Australia 25-15 four years ago in a repeat Plate final for 5/6 place, went down 30-0 to them this time. The Scots, 13-0 down at halftime lost by four tries, two conversions and two penalties.

France beat Canada, winners of Scotland's group, 41-7 for 3/4 place.

athletics

Angela Mudge (Carnethy HRC made the perfect start to regaining the WMRA Mountain Running Grand Prix title she has won twice before by taking the first of the six counting races in Switzerland yesterday. Mudge beat holder Izabella Zatorska, of Poland, by almost two minutes in 50.46 for the 12km, 2000ft climb only course with Ruth Pickvance next Brit in fifth place in 55.54.

Bobby Quinn (Kilbarchan AAC) will be pleased to have beaten all the UKA British men's squad, preparing for the first European Championships in Madeira in July, bar winner Martin Cox, of England, finishing sixth in 46.08.

Badminton

Dan Travers and Leon Douglas retained the over-45 men's doubles title at the European Masters Championships in Germany yesterday, beating England's Phil Howe and Roger Taylor 7-0, 7-0, 7-3.

But Scotland's other two over-45 gold successes of last year turned to silver against English opposition. Christine Black lost 7-3, 7-3, 7-2 in her singles final against Christine Crossley, and in the mixed doubles Black and Travers were beaten 7-4, 5-7, 7-5, 3-7, 7-4 by Peter Emptage and Pamella Dallow.

bowls

Defending champions Edinburgh & Leith moved up from third place to take an 11-point lead in the east section of the county's bowls championship after travelling to Buchan Park on Saturday and returning with a 19-3 win over early pace-setters West Lothian.

East Lothian, who were in second place, lost 18-4 to Midlothian and East Lothian Co-op to leave the title holders with an 11 point advantage over West Lohian, East Lothian, and Mid Lothian, who are all tied for second place.

In the north, Northern Counties moved into a nine-point lead when they beat Dundee 17-5 at Barnhill. Perthshire are in second place following their 20-2 win over Bon Accord at Auchterarder.

Renfrewshire West hold a 16-point lead in the west section after a 18-4 win over Stirlingshire West at Renfrew while second-placed Dumbartonshire West went down 18-4 to Argyll & Bute at Rothesay.

Ayr County coasted to a 22-0 whitewash over Glasgow City at Crooksmoss to take a seven-point lead in the south section over last year's beaten finalists, Dumfriesshire, who lost ground on the leaders despite their 16-6 win over Stewartry at Gretna.

Cricket

Heavy rain forced the second one-day international of a five-match series between India and West Indies to be abandoned without a ball being bowled yesterday, a day after the first one was washed out.

Mike Proctor, the match referee, made a visit to Sabina Park early in the morning to look at the conditions and decided to call off the game because of huge puddles on the outfield.

''There is just too much rain,'' said Proctor. ''We have called off the match because there is no way we'll be able to play on that ground even if the rain stops now.''

The next match is scheduled for Barbados on Wednesday, with India looking to salvage some pride after going down 2-1 in the Test series, which finished last week.

India were expected to leave out Vangipurappu Laxman for the Jamaica one-dayers, despite his 474 runs in the Test series, and ask Rahul Dravid to keep wicket as they went for a young side packed with one-day specialists.

rugby league

Huddersfield lifted their first silverware for five years with a 32-6 victory against Hull KR in the inaugural Buddies National League Cup final at Featherstone. However, some of the shine was taken from their highly predictable success when the Giants' former Hull KR stand-off Stanley Gene was sent off four minutes from the end.

The Northern Ford Premiership leaders, well placed to make a quick return to Super League, had already secured their first trophy since their 1997 Divisional Premiership triumph over Hull by the time Gene was shown the red card for tripping winger Alisdair McClarran.

Huddersfield, the only full-time team outside Super League, possessed far too much pace and strength for Hull KR, who were 20-0 down before claiming their solitary try.

speedway

David Meldrum looked to be sadly lacking in confidence as he collected only one point on his debut for the Fulfilment Factory Monarchs in their 56-34 defeat against Stoke Potters.

The Berwick-based rider, who switched from Premier League team Somerset Rebels in midweek, was not the only rider who failed to deliver on Saturday night.

Aussie Ben Shields also finished on the one-point mark with Dutchman Theo Pijper on 2 and Christian Henry scoring 3.

It was once again left to three riders to win most of the points for Monarchs, with captain Frede Schott top scoring on 11. Ex-skipper Peter Carr had 10, with Dalle Andersson 6 which could have been more had he not been beaten on the line in one race.

Once again the club's tail failed to wag and the Scots disappointingly lost the aggregate bonus point by two.

Monarchs had no answer to Stoke's Danish rider Jan Staechmann, a Monarchs' close-season target, who recorded 15 points with Paul Pickering next best on 11.

Volleyball

Scotland's men were beaten 25-15, 25-16, 25-16 by Israel in the opening match in their European Championship qualifying group at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall.

The Scots were taught a lesson in their first match at this level, the Israelis winning in just more than an hour. But coach Tommy Dowens remained philosophical, saying:

''I thought we played well but were beaten by a team with much more experience. We didn't serve as well as we needed to and the result boiled down to the fact that they served tougher and it restricted our play.''

Even the introduction of 35 year-old setter Kenny Milne in the second set could not turn the tide and Scotland face an uphill battle to make an impact on the group. ''I think it will be between Israel and Denmark for first place in the group as I don't think the Austrians are as strong as either of those two,'' Dowens concluded.

Scotland led briefly at 3-2 in the first set but Israel hit back and some strong serving from Alexander Laurian helped them to a 16-9 lead, and they closed out the set with a powerful spike from Ehud Zelzion.

The second set followed a similar pattern and although Scotland saved a set point, it was only delaying the inevitable. Kilmarnock's Gary Jordan gave Scotland some brief hope in the third set when he brought the score back to 14-11, but Israel pulled away again to secure victory.

Scotland now face Denmark and Austria next month.