A RIGHT medium fast bowler Samantha Marie Betts is a Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) and Women’s Big Bash League (BBL) cricketer who had more of a decade long career at national level in Australia’s summer passion of leather and willow.
Betts played WNCL cricket for the South Australian Scorpions and was a WBBL cricketer for both the Adelaide Strikers and the Perth Scorchers.
One of the highlights of her career was being a member of the Scorpions 2015-16 WNCL tournament win, when they defeated the New South Wales Breakers at Hurstville Oval in Sydney.
Betts, still a teenager took 1/27 in the 54-run victory and the SA girls broke the Breakers stranglehold on the Ruth Preddey Cup, after they had won the previous 10 crowns.
A native of Broken Hill, Betts was actually born in Upper North SA town of Orroroo.
Her first cricket was with the West Broken Hill Cricket Club and Betts spoke glowing of the support she received from the community in the Silver City, along with the dedication of her parents across her journey.
She won selection on the Scorpions’ rookie list as a 17-year old schoolgirl for the 2012–13 season, after being identified by former Australian international player and fellow country girl from Clare, Shelley Nitschke.
Betts had previously done “a fair bit of training and stuff with the guys at the West Broken Hill Cricket Club” and travelling down to play in a SACA women’s competition in Adelaide, along with playing in Murray Districts – Barrier in the Underage SACA Country Cups.
As a Scorpions rookie, Betts continued to live and attend school in Broken Hill, while travelling the five and a half hours to Adelaide once each week to train with the state girls.
After making her Scorpions debut during the 2012–13 season under the captaincy of Lauren Ebsary, Betts steadily improved to become a mainstay bowler in the Scorpions squad.
She would open the attack the team’s strike bowler, Australian international Megan Schutt.
Betts also worked heavily on her batting and for a time was noted as a bowling all-rounder.
Also a reliable fielder, who was a safe catch and had a strong arm, she would generally field on the boundary.
In the 2015–16 Women’s National Cricket League competition, her best Scorpions bowling performance was 3/39 against Victorian Spirit,
Betts was a member of the Adelaide Strikers’ squad from its inaugural WBBL01 season (2015–16) until 2019, before moving to the west and playing with the Perth Scorchers.
In 2016, she was awarded the Adam Gilchrist Cricket Scholarship to travel to the United Kingdom and represent Hampshire.
The Scholarship, funded by the Lord’s Taverners, is presented to the best female cricketer in Australia who is 21 or younger and grew up in rural Australia.
Betts played 69 WNCL games across her career, taking 74 wickets at an highly respectable average of 29.05 run per victim.
She enjoyed a pair of five wicket hauls, with her best figures being 5-46
Her highest score was 59 at WNCL level.
Across the two WBBL franchises Adelaide and Perth, Betts played 52 WBBL games, taking 28 wickets at a respectable average 26.89.
At SACA district A Grade (now called First Grade) level, Betts started at Port Adelaide, moved to the Northern Jets and for the past couple of seasons has been with the Sturt Blues, because the Jets didn’t have a First Grade team.
Earlier in February 2025 she captained Sturt to an SACA A grade Twenty20 premiership over the Glenelg Seahorses, her first flag as a leader in this competition.
Betts was noted as a great teammate and played her cricket with a team first philosophy.
