Great Scots from the early years

Now in his eighties, Mair remains a passionate supporter of Scottish rugby and a regular at Edinburgh and Scotland games. With more than 40 years' experience as The Scotsman's highly respected rugby correspondent, he was only too pleased to accept an invitation to join the panel, chaired by John Jeffrey and also featuring Ian McGeechan, Chris Rea and John Beattie.

"Age was probably the key consideration," Mair admitted this week, laughing. "I can't profess to have seen every player that ever played for Scotland, though sometimes I feel old enough that I should have, but I do remember seeing or hearing my father talk about some wonderful internationalists from the early part of the century.

"It has been a terrific thing to be involved in and I hope people do take the 'Hall of Fame' to their hearts. As John Jeffrey rightly said in The Scotsman last week, it has been a very difficult selection, not least because I always find it very difficult to judge players in different positions.

"We have done our best, but I would like to think that it will not only stir up a lot of debate, but also create a lot of interest in these great players from our past and what they achieved, and created for Scottish rugby."

This week, in our second part of a three-part series looking over the candidates the panel debated, Mair takes us through the four early eras they settled on - pre-World War One, Between the Wars, 1945-1959 and the 1960s. The winners in all categories will be revealed at a gala dinner at Murrayfield Stadium on 4 November.

PRE-WORLD WAR ONE

"There were quite a few nominees here, but as you would expect none of us actually saw many of these players so you were drawing from the history books and anecdotal evidence a bit. Bill Maclagan was a great player as was Charles 'Hippo' Reid before the turn of the century, men who laid the foundations for the respect that Scottish rugby enjoyed.

"Then there was Kenneth 'KG' McLeod, who was an extraordinary bloke. He went to Fettes College very young, only 11-and-a-half years old, and was soon in the cricket and rugby teams. The rugby team at Fettes at that time was unbeaten in the three years KG played, only losing a game to the full Scotland side once.

"Known as 'Grunt', as his middle name was Grant, KG was very, very fast. He made his debut for Scotland at 17, and that was delayed because the Fettes headmaster didn't want schoolboys playing international rugby earlier.

"He scored a wonderful try against South Africa at Hampden Park and soon left his mark as one of the best players in world rugby when he retired at only 21, his father, who wasn't a rugger man, having lost two sons already - and blaming rugby for the illness that afflicted the second - offering KG the chance to be looked after for the rest of his life, financially, if he left what he termed 'that dreadful game'.

"But that era also produced 'Darkie' Bedell-Sivwright, who had a dark complexion, another tremendous rugby player, and also the Scottish heavyweight boxing champion, who died at 34 after being bitten by a gnat."

BETWEEN THE WARS

"We started here with the great John Bannerman, a teenager when he was first capped, and a very good, hard player who went on to set a record of 37 caps, and also looked at Eric Liddell, who was the famous Olympic runner of course and a wonderful rugby player.

"Phil 'GPS' Macpherson was another of the most wonderful Scotland players. People used to talk about his shadow tackling in a derogatory way, as if his defence was poor, but I never agreed with that. He was a very intelligent man and I felt he was ahead of his time and that what people were seeing was actually the beginning of drift defence, where he would shadow an opponent but not tackle so as to be there for the next one

"Several people, including the late Bill McLaren, said that they thought he was the best player who ever played for Scotland.

"But, in this period, you also have 'The Flying Scotsman', Ian Smith, whose record of 24 tries has been equalled by Tony Stanger but never beaten, which is remarkable. We also had Johnnie 'AC' Wallace, who was an Australian but credited Scottish rugby with teaching him much about the game, which he would take back to Australia with him, and then the likes of Wilson Shaw, who was a fantastic servant to Scottish rugby, and a great player."

1945-59

"There were a number of periods that were harder than others, because the teams themselves were not very successful, but that did not mean we did not have exceptional players.

"This period was one of them. But Douglas 'WID' Elliot was a great example of the quality that Scotland produced. We had been damn good in the war years, the Army side beating New Zealand, and WID was the first truly outstanding player to emerge after that. When he was roused and the game mattered he was inspiring, not least when we beat Wales 19-0 in 1951 and they had 11 Lions to our one.

''Peter Kininmonth played in that game too and he was a fascinating chap, who gave up rugby after leaving Sedbergh because he didn't think he was good enough, but when persuaded to play for a club down south he made such a name for himself that Oxford University called him in, and he went on to be a banker for Scotland, playing 16 tests in a row, 21 in all and captaining Scotland.

"He sadly played through that period of 17 defeats and players like Arthur Smith and Hugh McLeod brought us out of it. Arthur was terrific, a footballer who turned to rugby and became one hell of a player, and captain of the Lions, while Hughie was the best prop I ever played with - the most hard-working, consistently good, focused player I think I came across.

"Ken Scotland was another lovely footballer, like Arthur, a slight player but one who played in all sorts of positions for the Lions and every time played well."

1960s

"Now we are getting into an era many readers will remember probably more clearly. Sandy Carmichael was a great prop, as was David Rollo, and Rodger Arneil, who I helped change from centre to wing-forward, was a wonderful internationalist who the South Africans admired greatly while on the Lions tour. We actually had a lot of back rows to think about, from Jim Telfer and Derrick Grant to Pringle Fisher and PC Brown while Mike Campbell-Lamerton was in our discussions too.

"It really was very difficult to choose just one, but very enjoyable reminding ourselves what these players did. I can almost hear the debates among readers beginning already!

"But then you look at the back-to-back wins over England that PC Brown inspired, the talents of his brother Gordon and other players that lit up the 1970s even if they didn't quite put together championship runs. When it comes to looking at individual players, the quality is clear irrespective of whether they were in successful teams, but being successful obviously helps.

"I would never say this was easy, but it was a great honour to be asked to sit on this panel and I hope that, when the names are finally announced, that people will feel that we will have done the game proud. But it will certainly stir a lot of debate; that's for sure."

• For more details about the Scottish Rugby Hall of Fame, including how to purchase tickets, visit the Scottish Rugby website at www.scottishrugby.org