With the new season nearly here, we continue our catch-up with our senior captains for 2026. Over the coming days we will continue checking-in with the 11 players who will be leading our senior sides this summer. We’ll hear about their plans for the months ahead, what games they are looking forward to and what they have been up to over the winter months.

We’ve heard from eight of our skippers so far, and now we hear from our Club Chair, who also leads the 2nd XI, Ollie Peck.

Last year was a bit of a struggle at times for the 2s after such a good season in 2024. What was the big difference from the year before??
2025 was a tough season, but the struggle made it quite an enjoyable and challenging one. I would say the league was a bit stronger than 2024, with Brentwood coming back up and Chelmsford back competing at the business end of the table. For our part, our early season availability was a struggle with some unfortunate injuries in the 1s and 2s coming at the same time as some of our younger players were on exam duty.

With a strong looking squad for this summer, what are the aims for the season??
It would be nice not to have to look over our shoulders as much this year. If we can find ourselves in the top half of the table we can hopefully get a good balance between competing in the league whilst developing our younger players. We have a very tough run of matches to start the season though, so players stepping up with both availability and performances in the early season will be important.

Mit Shah has stepped into the vice-captain position. What are you hoping he will be bring to the role??
I was really impressed with Mit last season. He scored fluent runs at the top of the order and has the fearless approach to batting that I’ve always liked in an opener. He’s a great fielder, and has an infectious enthusiasm and energy. I hope having a bit of responsibility in the team will help his game, and he can be someone the other younger players in the team can approach.

The 2nd XI is always an important stepping stone for young players trying to break into the 1st XI. Do you think that will be the case for some of the young players in this 2s this summer??
Absolutely. The 1s have a great squad at the moment, and I think there will be real competition for places in that team. Jamie (Green), Callum (Berry), Ollie B (Burley), Ross (Taylor), Zoran (Suneel) and Aki (Rahman) all featured in both the 1s and 2s last year, and I’d definitely add Mit and Gus (Siggins) to the list of young players who have the potential to force themselves a first team opportunity this season. It won’t be long before Fin (Tolan) and Vansh (Mehra) are in that conversation too. Beardy can’t pick everyone though, so it will be great to have some of those lads with us each week.

There have been rumours you've been at training this winter!! How has that been and what else have you been up to during the off-season??
Yes I probably made just over half of the training sessions (usually scouting rather than participating) and was really impressed with the number of people training at all levels throughout the club. I can’t imagine there are many clubs who get 50 players to winter nets each week, so well done to Scott (Simmons) and his team for putting on such a good programme.

The off-season for me switches from cricket to hockey, and I’ve been lucky enough to feature in Village’s “development” team this year which is setup to give younger players an entry into playing adult hockey. It’s been really enjoyable, particularly as a lot of the lads involved have played in junior teams I’ve managed at cricket and hockey since they were very young. It makes me feel a bit old, but I’m lucky to spend the whole year playing sport at the club with people younger and more talented than me, whilst enjoying a few too many Fosters Tops in the clubhouse after the game!!