Monday 16 August - destination Guildford

Surrey Sports Park in Guildford is the venue for the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup, and the destination today for 12 of the most highly ranked female rugby union teams in the world, as well as members of the different aspects of the organising team, the officials and support staff, and, of course, the chaplaincy team. It was good to finally arrive onsite, and to see the infrastructure coming together, after a couple of visits in recent months and almost 2 years of planning the chaplaincy input along with SCORE's Chaplaincy Coordinator for Rugby Union - our joint planning had started before I knew that lack of funding meant I'd have to leave SCORE, but I'd promised to continue to work on this as I wanted to see the project through to the end.
Around 2pm Dave and I collected our kit (white polo shirts, Tshirts, and baseball caps, along with navy rain jacket and shorts - yes shorts!) and together with Sophie, our young admin assistant, began to work on the smallish student common room we'd been allocated, in an attempt to turn it into a combined 'Oasis of Silence' and Chaplaincy Office. But first we had some negotiation to do, as it soon became evident that the room was also being used by some Muslims amongst the University's staff and students as their prayer room during the season of Ramadan. The spirit of cooperation was strong on both sides and with judicious and sensitive placing of resources such as posters, coloured table coverings, and various symbols an appropriate 'reflective space' was created which we hope will be both useful and well-used.
During the afternoon and early evening, it was good to see the 12 squads gradually arriving, and beginning to settle into the venue and its facilities. Some teams had their first session on the training pitches, whilst others used the gym or swimming pool, whilst yet others relaxed after long journeys. We were able to make contacts and begin to chat with people and so let them know of the chaplaincy presence - although we'd written something about this in the official handbook that all squads receive, nothing beats personal contact for spreading the word.