Cricket! No other word would have evoked more passion from the late Philip Snow than the cock and leather stumping the willows.
Indeed such a fine sport is one cause of endearment that Snow has for Fiji as a country and probably was the biggest one of all.
Mr Snow passed away in England on June 6, and with him some of the best memories of colonial Fiji.
Apart from serving together in the colonial government, Mr Snow's fondest memories of Fiji's high ranking chiefs like Ratu Sukuna, Ratu Penaia Ganilau, Ratu George Cakobau, Ratu Kamisese Mara and Ratu Edward Cakobau was their ability as exceptionally talented cricket players.
As stated in the preface of his book, The Years Of Hope, Cambridge, Colonial Administration in the South Seas and Cricket, Mr Snow says, "The high chiefs ... were all officially and internationally graded as first class cricketers.
"As the pre-eminent Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna of a slightly earlier generation told me more than once in his endearingly modest fashion (when he could have had higher ambitions such as the governorship of the islands) that his greatest unfulfilled wish for which he would have given much was to have played cricket at first class level.
"So the game and colonial administration in Fiji, willow and palm are not too far apart."
Such was his love for the game and the life-long friendships he forged on the fast Albert Park pitch.
He can be said to be a sportsman through and through as politics only ended as far as the 4.30pm knock off time.
With the prevailing sensitivities against multi-racialism at the time, Mr Snow defied the currents and formed the Suva Cricket Association, which for the first time ever allowed Europeans to play alongside Part-Europeans, Fijians and Indians.
He went on to establish the Lau, Nadi, Lautoka, Rewa and Taveuni Cricket associations.
In 1946 he founded, with Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, the Fiji Cricket Association, which was the first multiracial national organisation in Fiji.
He also captained the very successful Fiji cricket team in 1948 on its three- month tour of New Zealand.
The International Cricket Council graded the Fiji team's performance and players as first-class, a no mean feat by that time's cricketing standards.
As patron, he secured the Fiji team tours to England in 1979, 1981 and 1986. Mr Snow has been Fiji's representative on the International Cricket Council for 30 years up to his retirement in 1994 after a presentation from former West Indies player and ICC chairman Sir Clyde Walcott.
Mr Snow is one of the few in world cricket who gained the distinction of being a honorary life member of the MCC for services to international cricket alongside eminent figures like Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Len Hutton and Lord Cowdray.
He also published a book on the sport titled, Cricket in the Fiji Islands with the foreword written by Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna.
Close associate, friend and former pupil Doctor Paul Geraghty says Mr Snow was always following developments of Fiji cricket even after he had retired.
"I think it would be fair to say that he was disappointed at the fact that the national cricket team has slipped down the ranks - considering the success it had when he was its captain.
"But he never ceased to encourage cricket in Fiji in every way possible," Dr Geraghty says.
Mr Snow's interest and sporting prowess did not end with cricket for he was also a first-class table-tennis player having represented Cambridge University and Cambridgeshire during his time in England.
He founded the Fiji Table Tennis Association and was also the singles and doubles champion.
His panache for uniting people did not only end in cricket as Mr Snow was one of the founders of the first multiracial social club in Fiji, the Union Club, and the Fiji Arts Club in 1945.
His career as a civil servant started off as a 23-year-old district officer at Naduruloulou and over the years became magistrate and commissioner in practically every district in Fiji, including Lau, Nadi, Lautoka and the colo districts.
Mr Snow also married his childhood sweetheart Ann in Fiji in 1940 and they had a daughter named Stephanie Vuikaba Waine who was named after Adi Kuini Vuikaba.
During the years of the Second World War, Mr Snow was in the heart of administrating the life and hopes of the colony.
His final posting in Fiji was assistant colonial secretary before he left in 1952 to be the bursar of Rugby School, a prominent school in England.
It was here that he first met Dr Geraghty who was just starting out into the world.
"I first met Mr Snow when I was a young student at Rugby School and he was the bursar.
"Because I was a scholarship boy I would have a relatively small bill to pay, and would just bring the money to the bursary every term.
"I knew he had a connection with Fiji and it fascinated me, so when I had gained admission to Cambridge and everyone was telling me to take a year off before going up, I applied for a Dewar Travel Scholarship to go to Fiji for a year, and asked Mr Snow to arrange a teaching job for me," Dr Geraghty says.
Through Mr Snow, Dr Geraghty taught at Ratu Kadavulevu School for a year and travelled around Fiji during the holidays, where he developed a very keen interest in the iTaukei language, and returned to study them after he graduated from Cambridge and Hawai'i.
"When I went back to England after my first year in Fiji I went straight to Mr Snow's house in Rugby to tell him all about it - and thank him.
"After that I visited him every time I went home to England, and between visits we would correspond regularly by airletter.
"As he got older he would still write letters, but I would normally respond by email via his daughter, Di Vui.
"I think he appreciated me as a source of all sorts of news from Fiji," Dr Geraghty says.
Dr Geraghty is one of the most distinguished linguist in the country's history.
Mr Snow also encouraged another Englishman Dr John Laurie to tour Fiji and start an eminent medical career including being Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Papua New Guinea University.
Mr Snow also wrote several books including Cricket in the Fiji Islands, the monumental Bibliography of Fiji, Tonga and Rotuma, The People from the Horizon: an illustrated history of the Europeans among the South Sea Islanders, jointly with his daughter Stephanie Vuikaba Waine who was born in Suva and revisited Fiji in 2004, The Years of Hope: Cambridge, Colonial Administration in the South Seas and A time of renewal: Clusters of Characters, C.P. Snow, coups.
In 1974 he was awarded the MBE and in 1985 the OBE, followed by the Fiji Independence Silver Jubilee Medal from Ratu Mara who, like Ratu Sukuna, Ratu Edward and Ratu George Cakobau, Ratu Penaia and all the Fiji high commissioners in London from 1970, had been among the guests of his wife and himself in England.