highland lassie

That's the ballot done folks - the initial entry list is now posted on the front page of the SSDT website. Cheers Doreen!

Just a quick note to let you all know there will be no ballot results tonight. I got back from being up north on Friday night, and was away at 4am on Saturday to London. The plan was to do all the ballot prep this morning, then carry out the ballot this afternoon, but after a slight miscalculation on my part (!), I missed my flight back from London last night.

Is there a reason you chose to retain that information until 7am the next morning?!

....Except I've managed to get myself stranded in London overnight....

I'll be home this weekend, so the ballot will be done on Sunday afternoon / evening. You should have list online late on Sunday evening, Monday night at the very latest. Apologies for the delay folks, believe me, I'd far rather have been doing your ballot for you.

There's a full P65 entry list available to view on the SSDT website.

It won't be before w/c 5th January at the very earliest, so go and enjoy your New Year!

And you fell for it?! Have a good one R2....if you're still allowed to read this!

For those of you following the progress of the SSDT entries, this is just a quick note to confirm that we've now exceeded the 270 places available. There's still two weeks to go before entries close, so there will definitely be a ballot for places again this year. We'd thought that entries would be much fewer than normal in the current climate, but it doesn't seem to have put many of you off! For those of you who might be interested in making some money out of the SSDT, Scottish Provincial Press Ltd (who publish our official programme) have just started selling advertising space. It's reasonably priced and reaches thousands of trials fans in May every year, so if you think you could benefit from advertising in the 2009 programme, you can contact Michelle on 01463 732 223 (Ext 124) or by clicking here to email her.

Don't you worry - we're saving for next year already!!

That's the entry forms now available for the 2009 Pre'65 - you'll find them over on The SSDT Website.

I bought it as a pressie for someone, but have looked through it numerous times since and think it's fantastic. From start to finish. Don't think many folk on here got copies though, or at least if they did they chose to ignore my post praising it at the time!!

Excellent!! One conversion down, twenty three thousand, four hundred and eighty three to go!! That's cool though - everybody's situation is different, but if we can get a few more folk to think twice then it could make all the difference to the land we've got available to us a few years down the line.

I'm guessing that where Perce is coming from is that there are a small percentage of trials enthusiasts who work their asses off liasing with landowners and working their way through red tape to make sure that the sport of trials exists. If you're not involved, then the chances are that you have no idea of the amount of trouble that goes into getting trials off the ground these days - even for the most basic access there can be reams of paperwork and legalities to get through. All it takes is for one landowner to get p****d off,and in a small community all your doors will close before you know it....nobody can stop you if you're determined to go out and about, but I think everyone involved in legal trials would ask you to think twice about what you could be risking before you tootle out for your Sunday afternoon jolly.

Most of the recommended ones are full, but there's the Frenchgate Guest House which had a room available a couple of days ago...failing that there's a few of us piling into the Travel Lodge for the cheap and cheerful option! As for places to watch...over to Perce!

I'd have thought you'd have been quite familiar with that - isn't Mrs Moffat an avid fan of Mr Colley?! As to why it's there, I can't even remember, but it's staying purely due to the amount of pee-taking opportunities that it lends itself to.

Whoops! I forgot we're looking at 2009!

The P65 Scottish will be held on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd May. The route won't be decided until much nearer the time, but is unlikely to change drastically from previous years. As for accommodation, your best bet on that score is to check out the local Tourist Board who will be able to provide you will all sorts of info. Enjoy!

Good point!!! Must get Mark to cut down these times for 2009, they're ridiculous...

Well, I made it!!! Fifty five miles in five hours twelve minutes, which I'm sure all you lean mean trialling machines will think is atrocious, but those of you who know me will know that's quite an achievement!! The day started well when we made two new good old-fashioned Glasgae pals whilst unloading the bikes outside Glasgow Green - we weren't bothered by the fact that they were pished before half eight in the morning, had warrants out for their arrest and were carrying their stocks for the day in a carrier bag that was at least two years old....they were a laugh, and that was the main thing!!! Once we finally persuaded them that there was no need to accompany us to Edinburgh, neither of us were keen on being Andys' fourth wife and we really would survive our journey without them, we made our way into the park and that was us away! We were really lucky with the weather - we didn't have a spot of rain until we were driving home after it was all over, so we timed it perfectly. It was a bit hot at times, but generally it was sunny with a breeze, so grand cycling weather. Some of the hills between Glasgow and Edinburgh have to be seen to be believed - I had no idea Edinburgh was so much higher in altitude than Glasgow, but we got there in the end!! So that was it in a nutshell - I'm surprisingly fine today, which probably means I won't be able to move tomorrow, but I'll just make the most of it for now! With over six thousand cyclists yesterday, I think Leukaemia Research will have a fair whack of cash coming their way shortly. Many, many thanks to each and every one of you who sponsored me - I'm well chuffed with our progress, we're now heading towards the

Just a quick update to let you know that incredibly we've now broken the

Excellent - thank you!! I've discovered that refusing to help anybody at work unless they sponsor me a tenner works a treat - got seventy quid doing that today, and there's still four weeks to go!!

Wow!! Thank you all - that's fantastic! We were hoping to raise

Hola folks! I could have happily shot Mark when I realised he'd put the bulk of my rather lengthy begging email online, but all is forgiven now that the cash is rolling in! Huge thanks to those of you who have sponsored me so far -

Just wanted to say what a great job EK and G2F have done on the Observed 2008 book - it arrived through the door yesterday and I sat looking through it for about an hour before I realised I'd left the car and house doors wide open! The pictures are obviously stunning, but the layout and design of the book is beautifully done and really sets the pictures off. Good job all round - cheers folks!