Mike Blair, Scotland‘s most-capped scrum-half, is stepping down from international rugby.

The 31-year-old made 85 appearances for Scotland over 10 years and skippered his country on 14 occasions.

“I’m in the very fortunate position of being able to decide myself when my international career ends,” announced Blair. “For me, that time is now.”

Blair, who moved to Brive from Edinburgh in the summer, scored seven international tries.

“A place in the squad at the World Cup in 2015 is not a realistic personal target and, with that in mind, it’s right for Scottish rugby and the Scotland team, that other players gain experience in a pivotal position,” he explained.

“There’s no doubt that moving our family to France has played a part in my decision. Our son Rory is now at school here and we have an 11-week-old daughter, Lucy, who was born in Brive.

“However, it’s a combination of reasons that’s led to my standing down from international rugby, not just one factor.

“I have enjoyed immensely representing my country for more than 10 years and will miss that exhilarating feeling of running out to a capacity crowd with the whole country behind you.

“The noise when leading the team out for the first time as captain at Murrayfield against England in 2008, when we won 15-9, still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I think about it.

“I want to thank everyone – my family, the Scotland management teams past and present, my team mates and our supporters – for their enormous contribution to my international career. I have been very fortunate to have these people around me.”

Blair toured with the British and Irish Lions in 2009 and was nominated for IRB World Player of the Year in 2008.

He made his Scotland debut against Canada in 2002 and last played in November’s defeat to South Africa at Murrayfield.

With Blair retiring, Scotland‘s interim head coach Scott Johnson will hope Glasgow’s Chris Cusiter can recover from injury in time for the Six Nations campaign.

Henry Pyrgos, Rory Lawson and Greig Laidlaw are other options for the number nine jersey.

44 Scotland Street

Volume 9, Episode 1

Title: Knives and Chromosomes

Bertie Pollock (6) was the son of Irene Pollock (37) and Stuart Pollock (40), and older brother of Ulysses Colquhoun Pollock (1).

Ulysses was also the son of Irene but possibly not of Stuart, the small boy bearing a remarkable resemblance to Bertie’s psychotherapist, recently self-removed from Edinburgh to a university chair in Aberdeen. Stuart, too, had been promoted, having recently been moved up three rungs on the civil service ladder after incurring the gratitude of a government minister. This had happened after Stuart, in a moment of sheer frustration, had submitted the numbers from The Scotsman’s Sudoku puzzle to the minister, representing them as likely North Sea oil production volumes. He had immediately felt guilty about this adolescent gesture – homo ludens, playful man, might be appreciated in the arts but not in the civil service – and had he been able to retract the figures he would have done so. But it was too late; the minister was delighted with the encouraging projection, with the result that any confession by Stuart would have been a career-terminating event. So he remained silent, and was immensely relieved to discover later that the real figures, once unearthed, were so close to his Sudoku numbers as to make no difference. His conscience was saved by coincidence, but never again, he said to himself.

Irene had no interest in statistics and always adopted a glazed expression at any mention of the subject. “I can accept that what you do is very important, Stuart,” she said, in a pinched, rather pained tone, “but frankly it leaves me cold. No offence, of course.”

Her own interests were focused on psychology – she had a keen interest in the writings of Melanie Klein – and the raising of children. Bertie’s education, in particular, was a matter of great concern to her, and she had already written an article for the journal, Progressive Motherhood, in which she had set out the objectives of what she described as “the Bertie Project”.

“The emphasis,” she wrote, “must always be on the flourishing of the child’s own personality. Yet this overriding goal is not incompatible with the provision of a programme of interest-enhancement in the child herself” (Irene was not one to use the male pronoun when a feminine form existed). “In the case of Bertie, I constructed a broad and fulfilling programme of intellectual stimulation introducing him at a very early stage (four months) to the possibilities of theatre, music and the plastic arts. The inability of the very small infant to articulate a response to the theatre, for example, is not an indication of lack of appreciation – far from it, in fact. Bertie was at the age of four months taken to a performance of the Contemporary Theatre of Krakow at the Edinburgh Festival and reacted very positively to the rapid changes of light on the stage. There are many other examples. His response to Klee, for instance, was noticeable when he was barely three, and by the age of four he was quite capable of distinguishing Peploe from Matisse.”

Some of these claims had some truth to them. Bertie was, in fact, extremely talented, and had read way beyond what one might expect to find in a six-year-old. Most six-year-olds, if they can read at all, are restricted to the doings of Spot the Dog and other relatively unsubtle characters; Bertie, by contrast, had already consumed not only the complete works of Roald Dahl for children, but also half of Norman Lebrecht’s book on Mahler and almost seventy pages of Miranda Carter’s biography of the late Anthony Blunt. His choice of this reading, which was prodigious on any view, was dependent on what he happened to find lying about on his parents’ bookshelves, and this was, of course, the reason why he had also dipped into several volumes of Melanie Klein and was acquainted too with a number of Freud’s accounts of his famous cases, especially those of Little Hans and the Wolf Man.

Little Hans struck Bertie as being an entirely reasonable boy, who had just as little need of analysis as he himself had.

“I think Dr Freud shouldn’t have worried about that boy Hans,” Bertie remarked to his mother, as they made their way one afternoon to the consulting rooms of Bertie’s psychotherapist in Queen Street. “I don’t think there was anything wrong with him, mummy, I really don’t.”

“That’s a matter of opinion, Bertie,” answered Irene. “And actually it’s Professor Freud, not Dr Freud.”

“Well,” said Bertie. “Professor Freud then. Why does he keep going on about …” He lowered his voice, and then became silent.

“About what, Bertie?” asked Irene. “What do you think Professor Freud goes on about?”

Bertie slowed his pace. He was looking down at the ground with studious intensity. “About bo …” he half-whispered. Modesty prevented his completing the sentence.

“About what, Bertie?” prompted Irene. “We mustn’t mumble, carissimo. We must speak clearly so that others can understand what we have to say.”

Bertie looked anxiously about him. He decided to change the subject. “What about my birthday, mummy?” he said.

Irene looked down at her son. “Yes, it’s coming up very soon, Bertie. Next week, in fact. Are you excited?”

Bertie nodded. He had waited so long for this birthday – his seventh – that he found it difficult to believe that it was now about to arrive. It seemed to him that it had been years since the last one, and he had almost given up on the thought of turning seven, let alone eighteen, which he knew was the age at which one could leave one’s mother. That was the real goal – a distant, impossibly exciting, shimmering objective. Freedom.

“Will I get any presents?” he asked.

Irene smiled. “Of course you will, Bertie.”

“I’d like a Swiss Army penknife,” he half-whispered. “Or a fishing rod.”

Irene said nothing.

“Other boys have these things,” Bertie pleaded.

Irene pursed her lips. “Other boys? Do you mean Tofu?”

Bertie nodded miserably.

“Well the least said about him the better,” said Irene. She sighed. Why did men – and little boys too – have to hanker after weapons when they already had their … She shook her head in exasperation? What was the point of all this effort if, after years of striving to protect Bertie from gender stereotypes he came up with a request for a knife? It was a question of the number of chromosomes, she thought: therein lay the core of the problem.

© 2013 Alexander McCall Smith

• Alexander McCall Smith welcomes comments from readers.

Write to him c/o The Editor, The Scotsman, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh. EH8 8AS, or via e-mail at 44scotlandstreet@scotsman.com.

Order previous books from the Scotland Street Series

It emerged yesterday that Mr Ball died after cutting away his first parachute during a 3000-foot jump. The term refers to disconnecting the main parachute from the harness-container in case of a malfunction His back-up parachute did not deploy.

Jumps at Skydive Strathallan, which has seen a number of incidents involving skydivers, including a fatality in recent years, have been suspended amid an investigation by Tayside Police and the British Parachute Association.

Mr Ball was a qualified fixed-wing and helicopter pilot who was also a keen cyclist, skier and swimmer. A friend described his family as totally distraught.

He had been IT Integration Director with the Co-operative Banking Group since 2011 and held a number of directorships in the information technology sector.

He was formerly a director of IT and Procurement with Tesco Bank and head of group technology at HBOS, and spent eight years as head of corporate banking at Bank of Scotland.

A Tayside Police spokesman said: “We can confirm that the identity of the person who tragically died in a parachute incident at Strathallan Airfield is David Ball from the Barnton area of Edinburgh. Enquiries are continuing today with the assistance from representatives of the British Parachute Association.

“As with all sudden deaths, a full report will be submitted to the procurator-fiscal. The family of Mr Ball request that their privacy be respected at this sad time.”

Skydive Strathallan manager Kieron Brady declined to comment yesterday.

Mr Ball was known to club members as a semi-regular visitor to Strathallan.

A source said: “He had been to Strathallan plenty of times and was a fairly experienced guy. He would probably have already completed between 50 and 100 jumps.”

He is understood to have been one of several skydivers who carried out solo jumps on Saturday from a height of 3000-4000 feet.

Cloudy weather meant it was unsafe for the launch plane to go any higher before letting skydivers jump.

The minimum safe height is about 2500 feet, while ideal conditions can allow jumps from 15,000 feet.

Investigators are looking at the possibility the relatively low launch height may have played a key role in the accident. This meant the first parachute would have deployed immediately upon leaving the aircraft.

It is the latest incident at the airfield. Last February, Greg Benson, from East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire, was left with relatively minor injuries after he landed in a grassy field that cushioned his fall.

He had plunged 3500 feet into the ground and survived after his lines became tangled.

In August 2011, Zoe Sievwright, of Dundee, was completing a solo dive for charity at the airfield when both her main and reserve parachutes failed to deploy. She also survived.

In 2001 Craig Paton, from Kilmarnock, also survived a similar incident.

He was left in a critical condition after hitting the ground at 40mph but made a full recovery.

In May 2004, skydiver Alastair McLaren, 39, died at the airfield after apparently sabotaging his parachute to take his life.

It emerged yesterday that Mr Ball died after cutting away his first parachute during a 3000-foot jump. The term refers to disconnecting the main parachute from the harness-container in case of a malfunction His back-up parachute did not deploy.

Jumps at Skydive Strathallan, which has seen a number of incidents involving skydivers, including a fatality in recent years, have been suspended amid an investigation by Tayside Police and the British Parachute Association.

Mr Ball was a qualified fixed-wing and helicopter pilot who was also a keen cyclist, skier and swimmer. A friend described his family as totally distraught.

He had been IT Integration Director with the Co-operative Banking Group since 2011 and held a number of directorships in the information technology sector.

He was formerly a director of IT and Procurement with Tesco Bank and head of group technology at HBOS, and spent eight years as head of corporate banking at Bank of Scotland.

A Tayside Police spokesman said: “We can confirm that the identity of the person who tragically died in a parachute incident at Strathallan Airfield is David Ball from the Barnton area of Edinburgh. Enquiries are continuing today with the assistance from representatives of the British Parachute Association.

“As with all sudden deaths, a full report will be submitted to the procurator-fiscal. The family of Mr Ball request that their privacy be respected at this sad time.”

Skydive Strathallan manager Kieron Brady declined to comment yesterday.

Mr Ball was known to club members as a semi-regular visitor to Strathallan.

A source said: “He had been to Strathallan plenty of times and was a fairly experienced guy. He would probably have already completed between 50 and 100 jumps.”

He is understood to have been one of several skydivers who carried out solo jumps on Saturday from a height of 3000-4000 feet.

Cloudy weather meant it was unsafe for the launch plane to go any higher before letting skydivers jump.

The minimum safe height is about 2500 feet, while ideal conditions can allow jumps from 15,000 feet.

Investigators are looking at the possibility the relatively low launch height may have played a key role in the accident. This meant the first parachute would have deployed immediately upon leaving the aircraft.

It is the latest incident at the airfield. Last February, Greg Benson, from East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire, was left with relatively minor injuries after he landed in a grassy field that cushioned his fall.

He had plunged 3500 feet into the ground and survived after his lines became tangled.

In August 2011, Zoe Sievwright, of Dundee, was completing a solo dive for charity at the airfield when both her main and reserve parachutes failed to deploy. She also survived.

In 2001 Craig Paton, from Kilmarnock, also survived a similar incident.

He was left in a critical condition after hitting the ground at 40mph but made a full recovery.

In May 2004, skydiver Alastair McLaren, 39, died at the airfield after apparently sabotaging his parachute to take his life.

His appointment has been made to take account of the interpretation that sectarianism is a centuries-old nettle Scotland will not grasp but is also a problem few can – or will – define.

Over the next year, Mr Morrow’s expert group will sift the evidence to advise ministers on the impact of bigotry, what it actually is in 21st-century Scotland and what potential improvements could be made.

Mr Morrow does not believe the problem is the same in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

He said: “I think there is a danger of importing analogies from Northern Ireland.

“I’m very aware of trying not to do that. All of my other four colleagues on the working group are Scottish-based and the secretariat is entirely Scottish.

“What’s really important is that in its historic roots there are things which join the north of Ireland with the west of Scotland.

“But there are many things which are very different. Over the last 40 years in particular, the divergence on these issues has been quite strong. That’s not to say there’s not things which can’t be learned constructively.”

Nothing, it would seem, is off the table for the group. It has already commissioned a report into parades, which the Government had been accused of avoiding and which is sure to upset marching groups.

He says “there are things we can do within the education system to ensure children don’t grow up as different species but are part of a shared Scotland“, and that shared campuses for denominational and non-denominational schools may be part of the solution.

Mr Morrow’s assertion that bigotry is not a “ned” problem, but an issue for golf clubs as well as football terraces, and one that covers all of Scotland, will unsettle those who prefer to see it as west of Scotland tribalism.

Mr Morrow said: “Up to now, one of the ways to manage this has been to deny its existence or try to manage it in private. People say there is a lot of sectarianism but can’t find anyone who is sectarian.

“We would not be serious if we didn’t look at it in all its dimensions, and that can also be in the different ways in which people feel Scottish. Sectarianism is very different in the west of Scotland than it is on the east coast, in the Western Isles as it is in the Borders.

“One of the difficulties in formulating policy in this area is what makes sense in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire must also make sense in Montrose. The problems are not the same or dealt with in the same way.

“There is a range of people who think this is something from the past and those who believe it is integrated into the fabric of Scottish life, from top to bottom.

“On the other hand there are others who would say that this is exaggerated and kept going as a historic reality which comes out of football, and for most people isn’t a serious impediment – if you just let it disappear it’ll disappear on its own.

“Where do you make a distinction between something which might have sectarian roots but is now just part of working-class culture and those things which have a genuine impact on people? What’s not good enough is to just make allegations. If true, where does this present itself and where is it real? Also, you need to let people off the hook if it’s not true anymore.”