This, Stannard thought, was one of the happiest days of his life. The happiest would be when he was allowed to score a century. He had no doubt he would achieve it.

‘Ah, Courtney,’ said Sir Percival Potter, waving him over with a hand whose first and index fingers were wrapped around a cigarette, ‘come and say hello to the hero of the hour.’

‘My pleasure,’ said Leon.

He glanced around, to make sure he was not deserting Harriet, spotted her engrossed in after-dinner conversation with three other wives, and strolled over to join the chairman of the Wanjo.

A waiter appeared holding out a tray of drinks. Leon took a brandy and soda and nodded his thanks as Sir Percival said, ‘Stannard, this is Leon Courtney, a man worth knowing.’

‘I’m very pleased to meet you,’ said Stannard, blinking nervously.

His handshake was soft and damp. His dinner jacket was ill-fitting and obviously second-hand. He was holding what looked like a glass of orange squash. It hardly seemed possible that he was the same young man as the fearless batsman who had been the sensation of the day.

Little did Leon know, but Harriet and her friends were at that moment speculating whether Stannard’s performance in bed would be as athletic and daring as his batting, or as meek and mild as his off-the-field demeanour. This was, however, an entirely theoretical debate. Ronald Stannard was a virgin who had never so much as kissed a woman.

‘Congratulations,’ Leon said. ‘Splendid innings.’

‘Thank you very much, sir,’ Stannard said.

‘How long have you been on the staff at Government House?’

‘About three months. I joined the Colonial Office a year ago. This is my first overseas posting.’

‘And what do you make of Kenya?’

Stannard looked from Leon to Sir Percival, trying to balance his desire to give Leon a straight answer with the knowledge that both he and Sir Percival were highly influential men whom a young, junior official would be unwise to offend.

‘I think the situation is more complicated than I realised before I arrived.’

‘Well played,’ said Leon, with an appreciative nod of the head, for he could see how carefully Stannard had dealt with the question and how unsure the young man must be feeling at an occasion such as this.

Having been born, bred, raised and educated in Africa, Leon did not give a damn about the nuances of the British class system. But he could hear that Ronald Stannard spoke with a regional accent, rather than the clipped, upper-class tones of the other colonial officers who had played in or attended the match. They would have had their jobs fall like ripe fruit into their laps. Stannard must have had to work his way up. To many members of white Kenyan society, not least those who were hiding their own humble origins, that would make Stannard an object of disdain. To Leon Courtney, it was an achievement to be applauded.