Featuring Gary Macdonald, 11 times Scottish Trials champion and the most successful Scottish rider of all time; John Hulme of Trial magazine UK; Trials Guru’s John Moffat and presenters John Weller and Simon Abberley of Nevis Radio. (57:58 running time)
Click HERE
With the 2020 SSDT cancelled, Nevis Radio have decided to host a live, star-studded SSDT feature each morning beginning at 10:00 GMT – hosted by Simon Abberley and featuring regular SSDT commentators, John Moffat of Trials Guru and John Weller of Nevis Radio. Starting Monday 4th May, 2020!
It will be broadcast live and will be all SSDT talk, remembering trials of yesteryear and a few special SSDT guests joining in the fun. Two world champions and three SSDT former winners!
Monday 4th May – The guest will be local man, 11 times Scottish Trials Champion, GARY MACDONALD, the highest placed Scottish rider in the SSDT for 75 years!
Tuesday 5th May, the guest will be CARLOS CASAS from Olot in Spain! The Catalunian SSDT super-fan who has ridden the SSDT as far back as 1979. He will be joined during the hour long feature by Ladies World Trials Champion, EMMA BRISTOW.
The Wednesday 6th May broadcast will be a little longer in duration and we hope to include BERNIE SCHREIBER, the 1979 World Trials Champion and SSDT winner in 1982 and John Hulme of sponsors, Trial Magazine UK to discuss the ‘Scottish’ in more depth.
Thursday 7th May: former multiple SSDT winner ‘Magical’ MICK ANDREWS will be guesting! He will be joined by the 2019 SSDT winner, JAMES DABILL.
Friday 8th May: YRJO VESTERINEN, SSDT winner in 1980 and three times World Trials Champion will be on air live at 10:00 GMT.
Also on Friday 8th May, ‘Vesty’ will be joined by 1990 SSDT winner and former British Trials Champion, STEVE SAUNDERS.
To listen to these broadcasts, if you live in the Fort William area, then it’s on your radio, by tuning into Nevis Radio on the usual frequencies: 96.6; 102.3 or 102.4 FM.
If you wish to listen in live anywhere else then this can be done via the Nevis Radio website:
Go to : www.nevisradio.co.uk
Then: Click on ‘LISTEN NOW‘
This will bring up a device player as shown here:
Then click on the start triangle symbol, to start listening to the station live!
Click HERE
It’s as simple as that!
In the first full week in May, we are usually camped up at Fort William in the beautiful Scottish Highlands. However 2020 was to be the year when the actual Scottish Six Days Trial event could not take place because of the Covid-19 virus pandemic.
Trials Guru decided to have a virtual SSDT instead, using some photographs from previous events just to remind readers what a unique and special event the SSDT really is.
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The Finish Interview:
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With the cancellation and postponement of the majority of events due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has caused much disruption to the sport of trials since February, the committee of the annual Scottish Six Days Trial has made an unusual but fair decision to deal with the cancellation of their 2020 event which was to be held on May 4-9th.
in a statement which was released on social media platform, ‘facebook’ on Thursday 16th April, just over two weeks prior to when the event was to be run, it read:
“So many of you have been waiting to see what will happen with regards to entries for 2021. Here is the news you have been waiting for… Everyone who had a confirmed and paid for entry for this year’s event is in the process of getting a full refund.
We will open online entries for the 2021 event as normal in October. We felt it is only fair that all 2020 entrants* who put in an application for the 2021 event will be offered a place before the remaining places are chosen by ballot from the remainder applicants.
*2020 entrants are those who had paid up entries as of the 16th March 2020.”
What this means is that bona fide 2020 entrants will be granted preference to secure an entry for the 2021 event planned for May 3-8, 2021.
The only previous time the event had been cancelled, other than because of global warfare, was in 2001, this was caused by the UK ‘foot and mouth’ outbreak. At that time all entry fees were returned to entrants by the then SSDT Secretary, the late Ali Finlay. Entrants had subsequently to reapply the following year with no concession and a fresh ballot undertaken due to oversubscription.
The news broke on March 16th 2020 that the annual Scottish Six Days Trial was not going ahead because of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) that had already become a pandemic.
But life goes on and the human race will survive beyond 2020.
So, as we will have more time on our hands, we should not get too wound up and sit back a relax for a while and if you haven’t already done so, read about this wonderful event.
It’s all here on Trials Guru:
Monday 16th March 2020.
The 2020 Scottish Six Days Trial has been cancelled due to the worldwide pandemic of the Covid-19, known as the Coronavirus.
The difficult decision was made by the Scottish ACU (SACU) to cancel all motorcycle sport events in Scotland until the 31st May and this includes the SSDT and Pre’65 Scottish Trials in early May, which are permitted by the SACU.
In a statement on the SSDT website, Edinburgh & Dustrict MC Ltd Chairman, Peter Bremner posted:
“The Edinburgh and District MC confirm that the SSDT and the Pre’65 Scottish trials, due to be run in May, have been cancelled. Following advice from the Scottish Government, the Scottish Autocycle Union have cancelled all motorcycle sporting events up to 31 May. Competitors who have entered the events will be contacted shortly to advise on refunds and the next steps.”
Trials fans and riders the world over will be disappointed that the annual Highland Sporting Holiday has fallen victim to the disease, the only other time the event has been cancelled was in 2001 with the UK ‘Foot & Mouth’ outbreak. The only other years of cancellation were the two World Wars.
Photo: Electric Motion
The Scottish Six Days Trial will rewrite the history books on May 4th 2020 with the arrival of two electric trials machines in the event for the first time ever.
The French Electric Motion company (EM) have entered two riders in the event, in the shape of former Trial World Champion, Spain’s Marc Colomer and experienced British rider and EM importer Matthew Alpe. Both riders will compete in the event on the latest EM machinery.
Colomer not only won the FIM Trial World Championship in 1996, he was also crowned the first ever Trial-E World Champion in 2017. Marc is no SSDT newcomer either having competed for the first time in 2006 when he finished ninth overall and was a member of the winning Gas Gas manufacturers’ team. He returned the following year to take seventh place on the prototype four-stroke Scorpa. He has since been involved in the development of several different trials marques including: Scorpa, Gas Gas, Ossa and now EM.
With electric vehicles of all types undergoing massive development it was inevitable that the Scottish Six Days Trial would eventually be targetted and, as it always has, the unique event will contribute positively to the development of the machines.
The SSDT organisers are challenged with a new form of motorcycle propulsion and have already addressed the different safety aspects, logistics and refuelling arrangements necessary both for this year and also going forward, as the use of electricity to power motorcycles progresses in future.
In an ever evolving world, where green credentials are ever more important, welcoming electric machinery to The Scottish is a positive and momentous move.
Finally, some humour was injected by club stalwart Rab Paterson who quipped, “I hope these electric bikes will be fitted with cardboard ‘flippers’ jammed in the swinging arm poking into the spokes so that they make a ‘brrrrrrrrrr’ noise, like we used to do on our pushbikes – or we will never hear them coming!”
Article source: SSDT Media/Press Release
Bernie Schreiber has accepted the invitation of the organising committee of the Edinburgh & District Motor Club Ltd as Guest of Honour for the 2020 Scottish Six Days Trial on 4-9th May at Fort William.
A press release issued on 12th January 2020 by the SSDT is available to read here: Schreiber SSDT Guest.
Bernie attended a couple of events in the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA in 2019 as a Guest of Honour and hosted a series of trials schools called the ZEROBS Schreiber Experience, which were well attaended and well received.
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As we enter a new decade, we take a look back at some SSDT photos from 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010 while we slip effortlessly into 2020.
We are indebted to Iain Lawrie, a trials enthusiast from the village of Kinlochleven for putting together this collection of photographs, so please be respectful of his copyright and do not share them on the internet, instead put a link to this article if you don’t mind please.
The SSDT sections are named in the captions for all years.
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More Iain Lawrie images:
With the planning well underway, entries for the 2020 Scottish Six Days Trial (May 4 – 9) are now open!
The annual Highland event is expected to be oversubscribed once again and no doubt the annual ballot will take place around the festive period with hopeful entrants sitting biting their finger nails until then.
The online entry facility opened on Friday, 25th October on the event’s revamped website which is now powered by SportsmediaGB, a web hosting and online services company based in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland.
The existing web address is continued as https://www.ssdt.org and all the information required on the SSDT should be sourced from the trials’ official website.
Entry form data can be found HERE
The Scottish Ballot for entries is not a new phenomenon, it has been on the go since the early 1970s when trials were booming and the leading factories were all Spanish based, lead by Bultaco (first to win the SSDT in 1965), Montesa and Ossa. There were over 500 trials machines sold in the UK alone per year in that period and the SSDT was ‘THE’ event to ride. Remember, the World championships did not take place until 1975, prior to that there were the European Championships. Winning the Scottish meant everything to the factories and also the Manufacturers team prize, as it promoted sales of their products in the UK and overseas.
The first post-war Scottish was held in 1946 amidst petrol rationing and the entry field was limited, but the events popularity increased year on year.
The event hit a depression in the early 1990s and the field was depleted down to around 180 competitors, threatening the viability of the trial. Much of this was down to the Stop Permitted rule being adopted. This changed back to No-Stop in 1995 at the suggestion of Peter Stewart of sponsors, Hamilton Yamaha who convinced the then Clerk of Course, Willie Dalling, that this was the way to go. The following year, the event was back up to its maximum and the ballot used once again.
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