Thanks Mike, when confronting stormy North Sea, for hat (3,8)
I believe the answer is:
tam oshanter
'thanks mike' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'confronting stormy north sea for hat' is the wordplay.
'confronting' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'stormy' is an anagram indicator (stormy suggests disruption).
'for' says to put letters next to each other.
'hat' becomes 'tam' ().
'north'+'sea'='northsea'
'northsea' with letters rearranged gives 'oshanter'.
'oshanter' put after 'tam' is 'TAM OSHANTER'.
'when' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tam oshanter that I've seen before include "Poem by Burns; bobble cap" , "Headgear" , "Round Scottish cap" , "Poetic hero" , "Scottish brimless woollen cap" .)