Ones travel to Teddington
The firsts travel to near-neighbours Teddington to get their season up and running. Teddington had an oddly mediocre season in 2018, finishing mid-table. That is something they will no doubt be striving to put right in 2019. Furthermore, the Ts have a poor record in Bushy Park so if Rhys Davies wants to get up and running with a win they his side really will need to be on its metal.

Skipper Carlos Nunes is away but the 1sts nonetheless look stronger than they have in any of the pre-season games thus far this year. Gurjit Sandhu returns to bolster the bowling, whilst Valentin Guiraud, Ben Leale-Green, Rishi Kanjani, Scott Newman and Ishwa Soni all make their league debuts. Don Manuwlege, Mesome Hussain and Drashan Chohan will be looking to pile on the runs at the top of the order. The big question for many is nonetheless whether Sanjit Sandhu be chucked the new cherry (as he was in the T20 earlier this week)? Not a lot of money going on 'yes', I hear ...

Twos welcome Indian Gym
The seconds are looking to bounce straight back in to the top flight and they begin their campaign by welcoming Indian Gym to the Green. Eugene Berger is again leading the troops and it looks like he has a strong side around him.

Josh Hinde, Nikhil Nomula, Phil Nash and Nakul Vishvanath will all be looking to score well, whilst it's about time Ajmal Allahdad turned his prodigious talent in to consistent heavy scoring. His pre-season has certainly been encouraging and Ajmal might just be someone to keep an eye on through the season.

Former Indian Gym player Parampreet Singh will be leading with the ball, although he's going to be ably supported in the pace department by Dom Thamby and Phil Nash. Spin-wise, the reliable combination of Tom Field and Nakul Vishvanath will again be back in tandem, and the skipper himself could also fling a few up.

Berger clearly has options a plenty, the challenge will be to churn out consistent performances across the whole season.

Threes travel to Ealing
A topsy-turvy 2018 saw the threes only stay up on the last day of the campaign. 2019 will, if Steve Watts has anything to say about it, be different. Indeed, the threes have set promotion as the target.

With that in mind they couldn't have been set a much trickier task in week 1; they travel to freshly-relegated Ealing. The hosts will certainly have a point to prove and it's going to be interesting to see who comes out on top in this one.

Connor Finney was warmed up well over the last few weeks, whilst Sam Cliffe, Tony Hill and Robbie Bosier have also hit the ground running. Much of the rest of the side looks familiar; The Big Tackle will be there, as will fellow stalwart JP Bowman. Steve Cowley, Hayden Tyler and Muhammed Ahmed will also be hoping to make contributions with the bat, whilst the evergreen Earl of Twirl, Anu Agarwal, is also in the ranks.

Fourths welcome Teddington 4s
In theory, everything is new for the fourths. The demise of the 1987 League sees them move from Division Two there to Division 5B of the MCCL. In practice, little of great note will change. They will play (generally) the same sides in the same format.

That couldn't be more evident in week one when old foes Teddington IVs make the short journey to Broom Road. Hinay Dassani, starting out on his 137th year as a Saturday captain, has a fair bit of talent at his disposal. Ozzie Qavi will be a handful with the new cherry, whilst Rajdeep Chaudhry will back himself to make an impact.

Colin Blunden, Nihal Tomar and Sarwant Singh have all been round the block more times than they'd care to remember and therefore offer plenty of experience. Coach Guharaja will also be there to keep everyone in good technical working order.

5ths travel to HSM4ths
Much like the 4s, the 5s have had a change of division in the winter; they now ply their trade in Division 6b of the MCCL. Unlike the 4s, they have a new leader in the hotseat; welcome on board Chris Wylde.

Chris has lost Phil Walker to the fourths, but he nonetheless has a good backbone of experienced cricketers to help him out. Pete Burke and Andy Donelan are there, whilst Zafar Ali offers something with both bat and ball. Harmeet Singh also makes a welcome return, whilst Phil Smith will be looking to continue is good pre-season form. There's also room for the ruthless wrecking machine that is Jonny Bosier in the ranks.

Go well everyone, play a straight bat.