Possible blight - over-reacted?

Having had blight on my plot (in my first year  ) last summer, I've been keeping a very close eye on this year's crop. Today I noticed yellowing leaves and stems with some brown patches on the leaves, but only on some of the plants. I've not heard any reports of blight on the site, but there are cases in our area.

I couldn't tell for sure whether it was blight or the natural dying back of the foliage so I took the decision to cut off all the haulms just in case. They're all Desiree and had mostly finished flowering.

So...
1) If I've over-reacted unnecessarily, have I damaged the crop (tuber size and so forth)?
2) If it was blight, can the tubers safely stay in the ground for a week or so as I'm going away for a few days?

Maybe it was a bit drastic but I just couldn't face another year of a completely ruined crop  .

Thanks for that, I was worried that I'd return to mushy tubers!

Really pleased that your spuds are ok devon dave, but if you definitely have a significant amount of blight it is a really huge risk to dig up your spuds immediately in order to re-bury them deeper.  By digging them up you are bringing them to the surface and exposing them to the spores in the soil at that level.