wouldnt worry about a 9 mile trip, just make sure your appointment is booked in, then your covered if you get a pull
I have about 60 mile round trip to MOT LOL
while a MOT centre cant refuse to test, I would be a little wary that if they never done one before, will they be over cautious? or particularly with testing of reliants, they micht not know what they are looking at

I have had to stand my ground in the past with regards to bike and trike MOT's luckily I pretty much know the books back to front, so know what I need and dont need, has now resulted in my MOT tester for the chops, just looking at me and asking if its going to pass LOL