Today was a rest day for many, there was only one scheduled game on the bill. Czech Republic seeded 8th versus Ireland seeded 9th. This game had a huge amount riding on it.

The winner would move into the top eight and secure a quarterfinal against the USA, the loser would be top seed in the bottom half of the draw and play South Korea in the ranking 9-16 Quarter final. Along with Nancy, Eri and Tomoko, I would be running on this game, indeed I was fortunate enough to be named charge official.

But before I could begin to think about the game being held at 4pm , I had meetings to attend. Many of my peers went off to soggy yet beautiful Prague for tours, antique shopping and gifts to take back home. Back at the IRIS hotel however there were the first ever FIL women's division meetings.

Why were these so important?

Since 1972 the IFWLA have run Women's Field Lacrosse Internationally. In 2008, the IFWLA and the ILF (Men's Division) merged to form the FIL (Federation of International Lacrosse).

Over the past twelve years, I've been fortunate to be apart of quite a few IFWLA conferences since 1997 whilst I was Chair of Rules and Umpiring in England. In addition I was a member of the International Development Committee from 2003-2008. Both organisations have been responsible along with the member nations for expanding our game over the past ten or so years. In 2001 we had seven World Cup teams, that increased to ten in 2005 and now sixteen here.

Meetings are vital to growth and sustainability of the game. We get to hear about the many success stories from around the world i.e. Japan has 500+ umpires; Netherlands player numbers are exploding; England receiving a record UK Sports grant to help with development etc.

We also get to hear about the struggles: USA players numbers growing year on year, but officials numbers not keeping pace; South Korea players numbers growing whilst they have one official; Scotland and Wales whilst stable have yet to break through with any real expansion of player and officials numbers etc

We also get to hear about the new direction from the new FIL board and committees:
FIL under the leadership of Feffie Barnhill;
The women's division under Shelley Mahar
Officiating first time its been spilt from Rules, led by Sandy Goldthorpe
Rules by the returning maestro, Susie Ganzenmuller
Competitions overseen by the understated effective leadership of Beth Stone.

The year of the world cup is always been important to our game. It's the year that we review our game in terms of rules and we agree upon rules that we'd like to alter or trial over the next season.

This year some of the key agreed trials are: Restraining Line 8 v 7 not 9 v 8 we play now;
On the Draw only 5 pairs of players inside the two restraining lines;
Defensive and Offensive offsides to be penailsed the same
Playing down on every warning card versus on the 3rd yellow as we play now.

Meetings are always interesting, but can be tiring to, so I left midway through the Rules meeting to go and get ready for my game, happy in the knowledge that the new body would be taking great care of our game in the future, so long as volunteers keep stepping up and offering their time and expertise.

The 4pm game, despite the damp and cold conditions was everything the crowd expected: passionate, skillful and thrilling.
Again the officials were kept busy, and again we stepped up to the plate and answered the call. We used our warning cards when required to keep dangerous play under control and we allowed the players to determine who would progress into the top 8.
Although we probably weren't invisible as our aim is always to be, it's tricky to be invisible when you issue quite a few cards, we were definitely not the team that the fans were discussing, so that is always positive. Another enjoyable game from the perspective of the umpiring crew.

For the record Ireland beat Czech Republic 21 - 10 including a fast moving, defence to attack, four pass, last second goal.

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