highland lassie

Nope - with the 1st falling on a Tuesday, I think a lot of folk were caught out by the dates this year. Unfortunately the Saturday clashes with the Spanish Championship, so we've lost Laia and Cabes.

That one is a typo! Will go fix it just now and hope Shirty hasn't noticed!

Riding numbers for the SSDT now available online..... www.ssdt.org

Call me an optimist, but I'd like to think that whatever people's personal opinion on land access rights might be, trials riders have enough respect for their sport and for the Scottish to do as the organisers ask for this one week of the year. If you want to voice your rights to traipse across other people's ground, then we can't stop you. However, I'd be sorely disappointed if the week of the SSDT was used to make a political point - the trial has survived a hundred years and is an iconic event in our sport. It has survived a century of land reform and changing legislation, and it would be absolutely tragic if the politically motivated actions of one or two ruined the future of an event like this (and others) going forward. I know I speak for the rest of the committee when I say that we have a hell of a lot of work to do during the week of the trial, and we simply can't police every inch of the ground we cover. We have to rely on supporters of the sport and the event having enough sense to understand that guidelines are there for a reason, so please please please give us a fighting chance of keeping the trial alive. Something that you may not be aware of is that a few patches of ground that we use are designated sites of specific scientific interest. Whether you're interested in science or give a toss about such things is irrelevant - we have to jump through hoops to get these crucial pieces of land. They're pieces of the jigsaw that hold the route together and losing that access could mean that we lose whole chunks of the trial. What you may think is just a piece of moor or a farmer's field is actually something quite different. Agree or disagree with such things as you will, but please just think before you act. I'd also like to say that without exception every landowner that we deal with is extremely generous in their support of the trial. Most of them love the event and thoroughly enjoy being part of the atmosphere - they're normal people like you and me, not some ogre in a castle peering through a monocle and demanding that intruders be shot. The reason they let us back year after year is because of the respect that our riders and followers show for their ground - we've spent decades building up relationships with many of them, but whilst that takes a long time to establish, it takes just a moment of madness to shatter. As I say, we can't force you to do anything, but we'd be extremely grateful if you'd show a little respect for the eleven months of (voluntary, non-capitalist, unpaid) hard graft that goes into pulling the week together by choosing to help us out. Thanks, Mairi. (SSDT Secretary)

Just got the entry list through from the Pre'65 Committee, so it's now online at the SSDT website for those of you interested in having a look through it. Scottish Pre'65 Entry List

Pre'65 entry list now up on the SSDT website too.... Scottish Pre'65 Entry List & Reserve List

Ballot now done and entry list published - we had nearly four hundred entries this year (do you lot not get the whole ecomonic crises thing?!) so unfortunately there are around 130 folk that have missed out....apologies if you're one of them. SSDT 2012 Initial Entry List

Ha! Just found this! Will message you tomorrow and get something sorted - en route home at mo!

We don't have that facility with our banking set up, but if international transfer is a problem drop me an email and we'll come up with a way around it for you. Seeing as it's you.

At long last Edinburgh & District Motor Club are delighted to confirm that the much-anticipated Centenary DVD is now available! Six Days in May is a fantastic documentary that follows the 2011 Centenary Trial whilst taking a nostalgic look back at the roots of the Scottish Six Days Trial. Shot and edited by Scotland

They're en route to me as we speak....but apparently cos I live in The Far North it will take an extra day's delivery so I won't have them until Monday or possibly Tuesday. Full details will be on www.ssdt.org as soon as the DVDs land, don't want to advertise them as available until I have them in my possession! It'll be the start of next week though, at some point!

Yup, observers signed on (and therefore insured) by the club are officials.

Hi Dazza - please ignore the idiot above who knows all too well that riding a bike at the SSDT is a complete no-no, but possibly doesn't realise the potential implications of trying to be funny... You're more than welcome to come along and watch the SSDT - it's a great trial, a great week, and the more the merrier, but please leave your bike behind. There is absolutely no off-road riding permitted by anyone other than riders and officials at the SSDT. It probably sounds harsh, but by way of explanation the trial is run over private ground. As you can imagine, the amount of ground we cover involves the goodwill of a huge number of landowners who permit us to run 300-ish motorbikes over their ground for the week. We have ten month

As most fans of the SSDT will already be aware, Edinburgh & District Motor Club are releasing two special editions to commemmorate one hundred years of the Scottish Six Days Trial. The first is the long-awaited and much anticipated Six Days In May - MTBcut's take on the SSDT Centenary. We're expecting that to be ready for distribution around the end of this month and the launch will be announced on the SSDT website as soon as it is available. The second is the Centenary book, and we can now confirm that "SSDT : The First Hundred Years" is now available to buy. Read all about it and find out how to get your copy over on the SSDT website. The first run is limited to 300 copies, so make sure you order sooner rather than later if you don't want to miss out!

3G is a wonderful thing! Apologies folks, the Pre '65 article had somehow been unpublished from the SSDT site - it's back now and all previously published links should now work. Thanks to SITM and Moffster for alerting me!

Strange....all checked and worked earlier and normally get loads of emails if it's a generic problem but have had none. Am away from home with no web access until about midnight tomorrow but will see what I can do through 3G on my phone! Apologies!

Sorry - thought I'd checked it, posted in a hurry on my way out the door and have been on the road ever since! Cheers for fixing it Andy!

Forms also now available for the 2012 Pre '65 Scottish - you can find them HERE. Entries for the Pre '65 close a week earlier than those for the SSDT, so don't leave it too late!

Today is the 1st of October, and so in time-honoured tradition, the entries for the 2012 SSDT are now open! You can get your form at www.ssdt.org. Entries close on 16th December, but if you want to be sure that it arrives on time, please make sure you post it before 1st December - better safe than sorry!

I'm sure it's not etiquette to love footage of your own trial quite so much, but it's phenomenal! Think I've watched it at least twenty times so far, almost makes me look forward to 2012...which means it's REALLY good.

A sharp learner indeed!!

Irrelevant I know, but for the avoidance of any doubt, that's because he hasn't ridden since 2007, not because we've stopped checking every licence!

SSDT site overloaded....go to www.ssdtresults.co.uk in the meantime, final results there too!

Too much traffic for us - go to www.ssdtresults.co.uk instead. Failing that, get yersel over here and stop gurning.

The routes for the Centenary SSDT are now available to download. We'd ask that everybody pays attention to our request that unauthorised bikes stay off the route, both before and during the event. We run a real risk of losing some of our key ground due to illegal riding, so if we want the SSDT to survive the next one hundred years, we all need to do our bit. SSDT Centenary Routes