JACK rubbed his hands in gleeful anticipation and sat back to enjoy the game.

As usual, he was in the best seat in the house.

But this time it was a wooden bench. He would have gladly sacrificed even that for a seat of nails.

For Jack Walker's two teams -- First Tower and Blackburn Rovers -- were about to meet head to head for the first time.

He had bet the Blackburn lads, who had just finished second behind Manchester United in the 1993-94 season, that they would not beat First Tower by four goals.

Rovers won 9-1 and David May was quick to remind Jack of the bet when the score reached 5-0.

But Jack refused to pay up.

He argued that Rovers had not won by four, but by eight. "The wording is all important," he grinned.

On such attention to detail are vast fortunes built.

After the game, the players of both sides were treated to a drinks party at the Jersey Flying Club. Typically, this was no haunt of the island's Flash Harrys and playboys.

In fact, it had more a Working Mens' Club feel.

And don't you feel an idiot when a man worth £600million offers to buy you a beer and you instinctively reply 'Are you sure?'

This was a man who was naturally private and cautious with the press to the point of being defensive.

But Jack was genuinely humbled that the Lancashire Evening Telegraph had made the trip to Jersey to cover the game.

He would, though, have been secure in the knowledge that the depth of the warmth that Jersey holds for him would clearly surface.

Mention Jack Walker in Jersey and you will get blank stares.

To the islanders he is Johnny, an affectionate nickname for a man who has been accepted by the locals more than any of the tax exiles who flock to make their home on the Channel Island.

For Jack has done for Jersey what he has done for Blackburn on a much larger scale by investing in good causes and community interests -- a lot of them.

His overpowering and lasting legacy, however, will inevitably be the facilities, memories and hopes that he has provided for Blackburn Rovers and the club's supporters.

And, for me, three very public shows of emotion demonstrated his own depth of feeling for the club more than any investment.

The first was on the balcony of Blackburn Town Hall during the reception for the promotion party of 1992.

He was choking up with tears but still the gruff humour of the man managed to surface.

"Stop calling me Big Fat Jack," he pleaded, "I've lost weight!" And Uncle Jack was born.

The second instance, sadly, I have just recently had reason to recall in print following the death of our colleague Peter White earlier this year.

While Pete shook his hand in the stands at Anfield following the Premiership triumph in 1995, composed and professional as ever on the outside, Jack's heart was on his sleeve as the tears flowed.

And who in the wider world of football could have failed to have been moved by the sadness exhibited when his dreams were temporarily shattered when Rovers failed to beat Manchester United two seasons ago and were relegated from the Premiership.

Graeme Souness and the Rovers staff now need no more incentive to repair that damage and can gain comfort from the fact that Jack's final footballing memory was victorious.

Questions now inevitably turn to the future of the club.

No doubt some of the national media, whose noses were put out of joint when a new kid arrived on the block of their established glamour clubs, will harp on the theme that Jack Walker bought the Premiership title.

He did, without doubt, help create a new era in professional football by signing Alan Shearer in 1992 for £3.3million, an astounding sum at the time.

Those big city clubs eventually caught up with Rovers and, post-Bosman, have again been able to pull clear of the smaller town clubs.

The feeling is that the success of that incredible season will never be repeated by a club of the size of Blackburn Rovers.

Whatever the future holds, Jack Walker's contribution should never be labelled in mere mercenary terms.

He did much more than buy success. His gifts to Blackburn -- pride and hope -- were priceless.

Jack Walker manufactured magic and financed fantasy.