Welcome to the first week of pitting your wits against “King Krophta the Quizzical” (aka crofter). Whilst previous setters have revealed part of their private lives, I have been hiding behind a cloak of anonymity. It is time I came out of the closet!
My father was born and raised in Belfast and excelled as a bagpiper from the tender age of 8 years ~ eventually being “recruited” at the age of 12 as the “Boy Piper” with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. When WWII broke out, he joined the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders as a piper, and at one point was stationed in a small seaside village on the Northumbrian Coast. There, he “courted” a young Geordie lass and shortly after their marriage, I was born in North Shields as an Irish Geordie!