Pianist passes grade 8 seven decades after his last exam

By the age of 88, most of us imagine our exam days are long over. But for Ray Eveleigh, the challenge of taking grade 8 piano was too much to forgo, and he passed with a distinction 67 years after he took grade 7.

- Robyn Vinter

Eveleigh, a retired reverend who lives in the East Yorkshire village of Kilham, near Bridlington, said he had been blown away by the interest after his story was featured on his local BBC radio station, on television and in his local paper.

He said: "I'm surprised that it caught attention with so much publicity because there is so much news around with weather problems and the wars, of course, and then the political situation in America.

"And then I thought: 'This is a bit silly, you know. There's an old man in Kilham who's passed grade 8.'"