After a weekend without cricket - well almost, apart from the 40-odd overs I umpired in Scotland - and 1500 miles touring under our belts, Mrs Wilky and I were a little sad our long-planned road trip was over but quietly content having had a wonderful time to be back to reality.
Reality in our house involves a lot of panic over me looking for lost keys, dashing out with a cheery 'bye' only to return moments later having forgot (delete where not applicable) phone/iPad/packed tea/dog and withering looks of exasperation from Lesley after 23 years of similar routine.
Having missed a single Cherry Tree game and two Accrington fixtures it was lovely to make the short trip to Brinscall a ground I played evening not-going-home-till-dark football on with school pals more than 55 years ago and where I've made lots more friends since they joined the Ribblesdale League fold.
One of them, their scorer Bryn Huddart, has often asked me to stand in and score for them when he's not been available and I have, but despite differing soccer biases (Rovers/Liverpool) we always enjoy an afternoon chewing the fat together.
He mentioned that my Scottish sojourn last week had scuppered a chance for the two of us to pair up and umpire/score a couple of games on the Wirral together. Now I'm not here to do television executives' jobs for them but if a reality TV show "Bryn and Jim's Cricket Capers" doesn't have potential for as much knockabout comedy as six series of 'Terry and June' then I don't know what has.
Unfortunately Saturday was a relatively short chat as the home side were bowled out for 80. Some of the early dismissals perhaps belonged to a light-hearted comedy or at least the final overs of an evening T20 thrash rather than a long afternoon with lots of overs to bat and Cherry Tree pro Min Bhada and Andreas Sudnik shared the last seven between them.
Brinscall are lucky to have fabulous people steeped in the fabric of the village running the show and while they've struggled of late, they've come a heck of a long way from the days of the demise of the Chorley League which Bryn described as precipitating their elevation to senior leagues and with a few more players available and a thriving junior section ensuring a production line of talent for the future they'll put this disappointing season behind them.
It's always such a pleasure to see stalwarts like Liam Winstanley, Paul Chaplin and Andrew Scambler and while the fact that Emily Chaplin wasn't on hand to bring me up to speed with latest village gossip - I always loved her description of goings on at the Catholic Social Club as 'The Vatican' - was regrettable, I was touched by Bryn's kindness in offering to be on hand if my ailing parents who live close to him in Hoghton, need any help.
Any further discussions were cut short as the visitors made mincemeat of the inadequate target. Cherry Tree's top order have a brutal streak of aggression and ruthlessness in such situations and it was no surprise when Ziyad Bhada and Charlie Elwood cashed in on a ten-wicket win in less than 10 overs to boost their respective averages with healthy red-inkers.
At least an early finish meant I could spend an extra couple of hours with my mum and dad. My dad, Jim senior and his father, the late Matthew, gave me my love of cricket and nurtured it through boyhood and teens. Like me, both played a bit as young fellows without ever progressing to top League ranks but I'd give anything to be able to take my dad to a game at The Meadows or anywhere again if he was fit enough to enjoy it. Memories of the three of us travelling to matches together choke me up but what precious times they were to look back on.
My mum was never much of a sport buff but get this for a pedigree. She's been to two football matches in her life - PNE v Blackpool with Finney and Stan Matthew's playing (her dad, Joe insisted) and Rovers v Newcastle on VE Day 1995 when she joined in enthusiastically with a bellicose chant enquiring about the exact identity of Man United.
Cricket - even less attendance although she was there in 1971 at the end of Lancs' David Hughes's inspired Gillette Semi-Final win in the dark v Gloucestershire after being let in by a steward and found a seat, and sat with me watching a Wasim Akram hat-trick at Southport, both occasions following a bit of shopping when she got fed up of waiting sat in the car.
But, Accrington fans and Accrington Observer readers, and I know you've been patient, the meat of the column this week must be devoted to a momentous and magnificent win at Colne on Sunday.
Coasting along the M65 I took little note of a warning light coming on intermittently thinking it may be an emission thing, something only the tree-huggers bother about. Mark Taylor thankfully advised me not to go through town with the Blues Festival on so I opted for the 'M20 Lite" experience of going past Boundary Mill and such.
It was the first time I'd been on The Horsfield since 2010 or 2011 and one of the first people to greet me was Andy Clark who I'm pretty sure I played against on his Colne twos debut at Church in April 1988. By the return game he was in the firsts but that game at Colne 37 years ago remains a great memory for me, I bowled 21overs on a hot day and took four for 69. It was one of those days I just didn't want to come off and it was all coming together nicely.
I always thought Colne was the best track in the league to play on, something for batters and bowlers and along with a handful of other days when it came out of the hand alright I look back with pride on that day. I was 29, my goodness.
I also took my first Second XI 'five-fer' against Colne twos in 1984 but only played a few more games for Church seconds after that long spell in 1988. I wasn't always the most confident cricketer and by September I'd lost my mojo and been dropped never to regain my spot.
I never criticise amateur cricketers because I tried hard and practiced long to be a good one and just didn't have it.
So while I'll call pro footballers hell to burn I always look for positives in league cricket. Yes, I may bemoan a few dropped catches or sprayed wides and fielding errors but I've never seen anyone make an error they meant to make - or that I didn't make dozens of times.
At times it's been a task to find those positives this season with Accy on a long run of losses. But yet another teenage debutant got the call-up on Sunday and 14-year-old James Lawrenson who fielded well but wasn't called on to bat or bowl, could make 600 first team appearances and not play in another game as good as this one.
Incidentally, delighted that Colne do a team sheet with tables on and such and are kind enough to bring one to the box.
Two early wickets had Colne on the back foot but not for long as opener Kenton Rhodes and Geeth Kumara got to work.
There were six half centuries scored on the day, all of them so well compiled that it was a shock when the batsmen were dismissed. All of them except Jurie might have fancied a ton. I calculated late on just before he was out that Jurie could get to 96 and no more if he got the scores tied than hit a six.
Damien Clarke belied the years by taking a fine catch at deep backward point to end Rhodes' stay (I think he'd given a couple of unaccepted chances) and when Jurie Snyman trapped Kumara for 51 before he really opened out, it looked like we might have an end opened up.
Former Enfield man Yasir Ali compiled a fine, busy knock of 87 though and aided by a few fielding mishaps - two lots of four "buzzers" and two sets of five wides along with another couple of spills - meant we'd probably let them get 30, maybe 40 more than they had any business getting.
A target of 221 would have been asking enough but you felt at tea-time that another Jurie blitzkrieg to the tune of 140 or so would be necessary.
The absence of Jon (still watching and waiting with Millie as baby Hayhurst is expected any day) and holidaying Sneds - keep that Clarets tattoo covered up, Graeme - meant something a little different had to be tried and what a successful experiment captain Jacob came up with!
After losing Nathaniel in the third over Ali Hasham opening and Abbas Ahmad at three built a stand of real substance.
They wore the added responsibility proudly and skilfully.
Quality stroke play, stout resistance and patience when needed and plenty of rotation of the strike gave us a foundation we seldom enjoy,
When Ali finally holed out for a superb 83 with a partnership of 131 added for the second wicket, it was the first time in his spell at Accrington that the pro has walked out with more than 100 on the board.
From having the weight of the world on his shoulders at scores like 40 for four most weeks, Jurie, well used to batting in deep orders back home, was for once almost cast in the Michael Hussey "finisher role." 122 needed from 21 overs.
Not exactly a cakewalk, lots of work to do but for once he had back-up to call on.
Abbas, like Ali a previous fifty maker but not this season, emulated his mate by going to his career best too, 62, before holing out exactly 100 behind. I make that seven different amateurs with half-centuries in league, Worsley Cup and T20 this season. And I insist Olly Lowe has one in him yet too.
It was good to see plenty on, ladies and gentlemen enjoying an afternoon of fine cricket and supporters of both sides becoming vocal. Emile Haratbar joined Jurie and the run rate required remained just a shade beneath or occasionally just over a run a ball. You could gauge the way it was edging through the increasingly desperate slogans howled by the well-refreshed Colne sponsors.
A few of them were presumably watching a lesson in how to build an innings for the very first time judging by their ill-conceived jibes but had obviously been off school when they covered language and decorum with ladies and children present.
I can't imagine anyone less likely to be taunted into anything rash by the cries of a handful of shed-heads than Jurie and although the rate slowed down temporarily I just had the feeling he would uncoil at precisely the right time after Kumara had used his allocation.
Colne's out cricket was possibly a little better than ours - just the one extra extra, a wide - but that began to show signs of panic as the requirement was chipped away.
With 29 needed off three he took Matt Walker for a four and two sixes which looked to seal the deal before a leg before decision left it at 13 still need off 14 deliveries.
Asad Khan scraped a single but just four off the penultimate over with a few nervy play-and-misses meant eight were still needed off the last from Walker - who remember, had the last say in another real thriller between the sides at the iMEP earlier in the season by hitting the winning runs off the last ball for a one-wicket win.
Emile, boundary-less but importantly solid got his 20th run with a single leaving it to Khan who promptly picked up Walker for a hoist which cleared what used to be the good old Morris Dancers pub (probably now fancily renamed Quinoa Blue or something) by such a distance that neither I nor fellow scorer Alfie - brilliant at the job - could see where it ended up and the umpire, presumably spellbound by the enormity of the hit, failed to signal the six.
With one required Asad cut the next delivery for four although seems to have been given only the single on PlayCricket. I'm adamant it had gone for four before he grounded his bat (I've seen Root cleverly refuse to ground his in the same circumstances) so I'm insisting he made 14 not out. It matters not anyway. The game was, gloriously won with three balls to spare.
These two sides have provided a couple of absolute crackerjack games this season as Bumble might say.
I must confess I lost my professional decorum and punched the air with a cry of 'Yes" - very unlike me but what the heck I love these boys (and girls) and three wins out of four is a superb mini-run. A bloke with a nice boater on who'd been sat nearby revealed himself as an Accy fan and asked me to pose thumbs up in the scorebox displaying the final numbers. I complied with that request shamelessly too. Totally lost my wotsit as they say. Apologies all round.
"This'll be being dissected and discussed in the Peel Park for many. hours tonight," he said.
I hope he brings a few down this week against Enfield. This team and this captain and pro deserve a bit of backing. You could even get involved like the loyal Colne folks helping brushing and tidying the wicket at teatime.
I broke another of my personal rules by going in the dressing room and congratulating the lads and enjoyed meeting the Lawrenson parents and Emile's mum. Outside, obviously, they hadn't actually beaten me into the changing rooms.
A lady on the main road outside with her kids making a fuss of Rollo told me they'd been at the Blues Festival. "It was good but some of the people there are getting a bit lairy and it felt like time to go,'
Perhaps Jurie's fan club Colne branch had made it down.
I knew how she felt.
My car broke down at the Preston end of the M65 going home and I had to wait an hour and a half for a tow. I didn't give two hoots. 1500 miles and 80 more to watch that, I'd have gladly pushed my scoring bag on wheels the last few miles to Walmer Bridge
Quiz - Last week's answer - Ted Dexter (Milan)
This week- I mentioned the 1988 season earlier. On the 5 June that year which player who played almost 100 games for Accrington, more than 300 for their opponents that day Enfield and curiously, one for Lowerhouse made his debut against Sunday's opponents. Can you name him?
