Mansfield succumbs to Beccymania as town welcomes home its golden girl (Independent)
If Gordon Brown needed an object lesson in how sport can divert the nation from its present preoccupation with economic gloom, he could have done worse than get himself down to Mansfield's Market Square yesterday evening.

Football: Carling Cup - Cheltenham Town 2-3 Stoke City (Guardian Unlimited)
Stoke fielded a weakened side, but managed to overcome plucky Carling Cup opponents Cheltenham by the odd goal in five

Prank calls get Mansfield Senior grad fired up for Ohio State (Mansfield News Journal)
MANSFIELD -- The phone calls started a couple of weeks ago. Allowing for poetic license, they went something like this:

Area overflows with talent as Zero Week approaches (Plano Courier)
Mike Overton knows a thing or two about motivation. He engineered a rebirth of football at West Mesquite, lifting a perennial playoff watcher into a state contender.

Rare call: Tight end reverse (Boston Globe)
The shirt is so tattered the Salvation Army likely would pass on it. Once gray, it's now a shade of yellow, which the owner admits, "doesn't make much sense." It's a cut-off shirt, too, so it looks particularly funny hanging on the frame of a 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound football player.

Heroes' welcome for Olympians (Channel 4)
Britain's Olympic stars have been greeted by a series of homecoming celebrations across the country.

London Mayor pledges Olympic cash (Channel 4)
London Mayor Boris Johnson has promised "tens of millions of pounds" to create a true Olympic legacy in 2012. The money will be spent on coaching young people when the Olympics arrives in London in four years' time, he said.

Old Boys Weekend Round Up (Norwich City MAD)
As usual, there is plenty of action to report on featuring former Lilywhites and as per the norm, we shall be starting with Saturday's Premiership fixtures and Everton in particular.

Heroes' welcome for Britain's Olympians as they arrive home... now the countdown to London 2012 begins (Daily Mail: World News)
Britain's Olympic stars enjoyed the sweetest reward of all yesterday as they flew home to a heroes' welcome from their families.

Olympics: Mansfield needs a new bus and Nadal does his own washing - 100 things we learned in Beijing (Guardian Unlimited)
With The Olympics drawing to an end, feast upon 100 facts picked up during the last fortnight