Possible Clues:

• Officer laid into a bounder with energy - there's public praise
• Complimentary review
• County youth held by expert gives tribute
• Honour officer infiltrating a rebel environment
• Bill gets pass and two poor grades - hardly merits this!
• That's enough to make a night of it, by the sound of it
• Praise or approval - or elevation to knighthood
• Praise as in elevation to knighthood
• Touching award
• Such a blow at night, by the sound of it, would make one's day