ALL right, I couldn't get too excited about the Olympics - but that was before they started, and now I'm hooked.

That weekend gold rush stirred even in my weary breast patriotic feelings that I previously had no idea existed.

For once the Premiership was overshadowed, and rightly so, by sports that the rest of us can relate to.

That's right, we're talking stuff you can do sitting down - like riding a bike or rowing a boat.

And when the no-longer-beautiful-game's Respect campaign goes off the rails, as it surely will, let's remember the dignity and modesty (allied to winning mentality) of Ben Ainslie, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Rebecca Romero and the rest.

And a special well done to Rebecca Adlington, not just because two gold medals make her Britain's best woman swimmer of all time, but because she has helped put my hometown of Mansfield firmly on the map.

In fact they're so proud of Becky back in Nottinghamshire that they've named the local swimming baths after her.

Which is a bit of a relief, to be honest, because until Adlington made such a splash, the town's most famous former residents were Alvin Stardust, who wasn't even born there, and Lord Byron, "mad, bad and dangerous to know", who lived in a stately pile called Newstead Abbey.