Preparations for the 2010 Scottish domestic season are well under way, with both Watsonian and Uddingston revealing the identities of their overseas professionals.

Watsonian have signed prolific run scorer Tim Weston from New Zealand, who is a batsman who plays his cricket for Central Districts in New Zealand’s first class domestic competition.

He is a regular feature of the CD squad alongside current and former Blackcaps Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram, Peter Ingram, Matthew Sinclair, Jamie How and Michael Mason. He is a Level Two cricket coach with teaching qualifications .Tim is looking forward to the challenge that a season at Myreside will bring him on and off the field.

Speaking on the Watsonian website, Club President Ross Brooks was delighted when announcing news of his signing “Timmy and I have been in close contact since late October and I have been extremely impressed by his enthusiasm for the game and the experience he will bring to us”.

“Today’s announcement is the result of a lots of detailed discussions and the long running completion of the process we have to go to through to engage an individual in a coaching capacity”.

Brooks was also keen to add that he sees the signing of Weston as key ingredient for future successes of the club too, “I have no doubt Timmy will fit well into our current squad and help us achieve more positive results on the field however more importantly I believe he will help us continue to move forward as a club during his stay at Myreside, the development of our club and the development of cricket across the community is of massive importance to the clubs committee”.

“Over the past 18 months we have made strategic changes in how we operate across all areas of our club and the addition of Timmy should help us deliver against our plans and the goals we have set ourselves”.

Meanwhile Uddingston have signed quite possibly the longest-named player in SNCL history. Sri Lankan Batepola Arachchige Rasika Suranga Priyadarshana, 34, plays for the Lankan Cricket Club in Colombo and boasts 5,000 runs and 300 wickets in the first-class game.

The move will not be too popular with scorers and media commentators, but Uddingston captain Ricky Bawa insists there will be no additional stress on his new team-mates over his name.

Speaking on the club website, he said: "It was a pain in the neck filling in the application for his visa and his name is certainly going to keep scorers on their toes. But I've had a word with him and he's happy if we refer to him as Ras."