After a seemingly extended winter of snow, wind, rain and hail the Cheshire County Cricket league campaign gets under way this Saturday.

In the top flight of the newly-named Vivio League, Macclesfield couldn’t have been handed a tougher assignment to get the 2013 season started.

The Victoria Road side – now captained by Ben Morrison, who succeeds Barney Cutbill – go to defending champions Nantwich for the curtain-raiser.

With 10 wins from 22 games in a rain-affected season Macc finished the 2012 campaign in fourth place, 40 points behind the champions, and they’ll be hoping to make a statement of their intent with success this Saturday.

Cutbill, who remains at the club to fill in for the second XI on occasion, said: “With all three teams again playing in the

Premier Division of their respective leagues it’s looking like another exciting year of cricket at Victoria Road.”

The club welcomes Nick Ross as their overseas man for this season. Ross, who arrived on Thursday from Australian side Carlton, is a batsman and occasional medium-pace bowler and his signing strengthens the link between Macclesfield and the Melbourne Grade cricket side, with Evan Gulbis and Tom Parfett having already represented both.

Macc have also retained the services of the league’s player-of-the-year, Khalid Sawas. His 942 runs last season saw him top the batsmen’s list and win the most votes from his peers.

Sawas’ performance also saw him called up to the Cheshire minor counties side, alongside team mate Ian Tait, and after heading the minor counties’ run-scoring list, he progressed to the second teams of Lancashire and Worcestershire.

Following their final day relegation from Division One last season Bollington will be aiming for promotion when their season starts this Saturday at home to Stockport (1pm start).

New captain Tom Barrass takes the reins and welcomes back former batsman Rick Hough after his spell at Macclesfield, as well as all-rounder Hafiz Imran.

The new skipper will also be looking for big contributions from the experienced trio of Mo Ali, Matt Dawson and Aldo Palazzo, as well as the clubs promising youngsters Stuart Plant, Jake Dickinson and Tom Horsfield.

Bolly’s seconds, under the captaincy of Joe Binder, make the journey to Widnes for their first fixture on Saturday.

Bollington will be resuming their rivalry with Poynton in Division Two this season after the London Road North team finished third in last season’s standings.

Middlewich and Cheadle made the step up, leaving Poynton facing another season in the Second Division.

The team captained by James Williams make the journey to Warrington for their opening fixture while the second team will host Cheadle Hulme.

In the Meller Braggins League, Prestbury will be out to improve on last year’s ninth place in Division One.

Eventually finishing 12 points clear of the relegation zone they’ll be aiming for better this time around. They get the season underway at home to Malpas on Saturday.

Also hoping for an improvement are Pott Shrigley, who missed out on promotion to Division Two last season.

Their season starts on the road, at Cheadle Hulme Ladybridge.

After two successive promotions, the pressure’s on Langley to deliver again after they made the leap up to Division Two.

This year they will be led by Edward Johnson and they start the season at home to Ashley.

In the Cheshire Cricket Alliance Kerridge start their Division?Three campaign at Hartford while the second XI host their Hartford counterparts at Clarke Lane.