JOHN REYNOLDS admits he knew nothing about cricket when his teacher, a former Army officer, at the Chase School in Malvern pointed a finger at him and announced “Reynolds! I’m making you captain of the cricket team. You’ve shown initiative.”

The reason for this surprising decision was that after his first cricket session at school John had, without prompting, cleared away all the cricket kit left lying around and put it away tidily in preparation for the next time.

But John, now aged 75, was a born organiser and it is a quality he has used to good effect in his 60 odd years involved with the game. In 1995 he set up a team for players aged over 50 called the Fossils and it proved to be a real hit with local cricket enthusiasts of a certain age.

The Worcester-based team now has 40 regular players and another 20 who drift in and out. People are so enthusiastic about playing for the Fossils, they come from as far away as Wiltshire, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley and Stourbridge.

Last year Shaun D'Oliveira – son of Worcestershire and England cricket icon Basil D’Oliveira – played for the Fossils, which John described proudly as “the peak of my career”.

The phenomenon that is the Fossils Cricket Team all started at the Malvern Wells Cricket Club annual dinner. The club didn’t actual play matches any longer but held a yearly social event which John attended.

He said he overheard one of the guests – Darkie Reynolds - talking about the lack of local cricket for older players. “I said: ‘Why don’t you start an over 50s team?’ A few days later I was walking up the Shambles and bumped into someone else who had been at the same dinner and he asked me when I was starting the over 50s cricket team. Then someone rang up and asked the same thing.”

It was clear there were older players who still wanted to take part in a game they loved during their twilight years and John – with his passion for cricket and organising – decided to take on the challenge.

“I thought about it for a few days and I began to think it would be nice to play six games a year with some of the players I had known for a long time,” he said.

His wife Margaret, who has been responsible for the team’s traditional cricket teas since the first match, came up with the name Fossils as a light-hearted reference to the vintage of the players and the couple, who live in Sanctuary Close, Worcester, have become affectionately known as Mr and Mrs Fossil.

“I had been involved in cricket for 40 years or so and I started the Fossils Cricket Team the next year. I intended to have six games a season and we started playing on the ground at Rushwick,” said John.

“Early in 1995, at the age of 54, I started the task of getting 22 players together to play the first Fossils game – the Fossils v President’s XI. It was so successful that I had no trouble arranging five more games that year. There was nothing about for older players then.”

Three of the Fossils who played in that first game – John Reynolds, Peter Tudge and John Banner still play now – 21 years on and the average age of the players is in the 60s. The oldest player currently is Fred Lloyd at 77, while the oldest person to have turned out for the Fossils was Tony Neel, who retired last year at the age of 81.

“He was the oldest player we had ever had. He bowled spin and he was good. He has loads of wickets. It was only that his shoulder packed up that he stopped playing,” John explained.

While the players may not be as spritely as they used to be, there is no sign of their enthusiasm waning. The Fossils have 45 fixtures this year including a four-day tour to Weston-super-Mare.

In fact the Fossils, which usually plays normal club sides because there aren’t too many older teams, often has a surplus of players for matches and lends them to the opposition when they can’t raise a full team.

“I do not have a problem getting players. There is a game coming up and I have 29 players available.”

John said, while the Fossils players aim to win their matches, they are not vigorously competitive. “We play for fun but we are serious and we want to win – but it doesn’t matter if we don’t. The enjoyment factor is the most important thing. Nobody moans if you drop a catch.”

He said some of the members don’t have the faintest idea about playing cricket but he gives them a game because they want to play. You have to be the right sort of person to play for the Fossils.

“It is like being part of a big family. There is no pressure when you play for the Fossils. They always have to turf us out of the pavilion after a match because we are all chatting. It is like a community.”

Although still an ardent cricket lover, John stressed his main aim as Fossils captain is to ensure everyone else enjoys themselves.

“I cannot pass a cricket ground without thinking I wish I was playing but my main aim of running the Fossils is to see the enjoyment the others have. It is a brilliant feeling to think I have achieved that.

“My enjoyment is watching them enjoying themselves and being captain, which means using the old grey matter to fathom out when to change the bowlers and other things to get the opposition out.”

John said he knows his fellow members appreciate the work he and Margaret have done over the years. The clubbed together and paid for them to have a holiday.

“I would like to thank everyone who has played for the Fossils for giving me 21 years of pleasure and headaches,” he joked.

With a view to the future, John has started to loosen his grip on the organising and handed over responsibility for the mid-week games to trusted long-standing Fossils Brian Norfolk and Paul Thompson.

“Last year I decided that I am getting to the age where something has to happen and, looking to the future, I delegated the mid-week matches. I never thought it would still be going after 21 years. I was 54 when I started it and I never thought I would be playing at 75.”

Anyone interested in playing for the Fossils should contact John by ringing him on 01905 427007. “We are not looking for players but we embrace anyone who wants to play.”

The Fossils players have also raised more than £5,000 for Acorns Children’s Hospice and John thanked everyone who had made donations supporting the team and the charity.

“I would like to thank all those players who have helped make the Fossils such an enjoyable success since 1995. I would like to thank all my friends who have donated money to the Fossils each year – especially Tom Webster and Fred Lloyd who have been very generous. Here’s to the future, whatever form it takes.”