EDGWORTH captain Adam Syddall is confident he has a side capable of bouncing straight back up to the Greater Manchester League Premier Division this season.

The Bolton Road club have signed up-and-coming South African batsman Clyde Fortuin as their professional to add to quality players like Syddall, Liam Watkinson, Josh Fallows and Brett Ernst.

Although only 21 years old, Fortuin has played first-class cricket for three years and currently represents the Warriors franchise and Eastern Provence.

He has plenty of international experience too.

He was an ever-present in the South Africa Under-19s side which won the World Cup in 2014 when he top scored with 74 against Australia in the semi-final.

He also scored 99 off 79 balls against England under-19s in a youth one-day international.

Syddall said the club is delighted to have secured the services of a player widely reckoned to be destined to be an international star.

"He's definitely one for the future in the South Africa side and we're very pleased to have got him," said Syddall.

"We've got him predominantly as a batsman. He's a very good wicketkeeper but he might want a break from the gloves, we'll see.

"He's keen to get on with coaching the seniors and juniors as well, which is good.

"He's a very good addition to the team which is coming together now."

Edgworth were relegated in the GMCL's inaugural season last year after joining from the Bolton Association where they played for 109 years.

And Syddall has no doubt what the chief goal is in his first season as captain.

"The aim is to go straight back up," he said.

"If they change promotion to two up in the future it's going to be a lot harder to go up so we want to do it right away.

"I think we've got a good chance. We're really happy to have kept our good players like Josh and Liam.

"There was a fair bit of interest in Liam in particular but he's decided to commit to us which is a big thing for the club.

"And we have a team we think is going to be able to compete, although you never know what's going to happen.

"The division will be competitive and there'll be some clubs we don't know anything about because we've not played them before.

"But that's a good thing. It's good to come up against new faces, it freshens it up."