Paper Monitor

12:02 UK time, Thursday, 9 August 2012

A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

It's exhausting for Paper Monitor, this Olympics lark. So many supplements to plough through, puns to process.

Post-event hedonism - well, if you're an Olympian anyway.

"It's not the winning, it's the taking party", sniggers the Daily Mirror, serving up a snap of a very merry-looking* (*drunk) Belgian cyclist Gijs van Hoecke, ostensibly covered in spilt drinks and being carried out of a club by his teammates.

Also enjoying well-deserved downtime are members of Team GB - including new cycling sweetheart Laura Trott.

Ah, Laura. Only 20, two gold medals under her belt - and now hanging out with the third in line to the throne, no less.

Pictures of her having a ruddy good time at the beach volleyball with Prince Harry are splashed across many a front page.

"Golden girl Laura Trott's surprise 'date' with Harry", sings the Daily Express.

"Wales and Wheels", goes the Sun, offering more on "Harry's night with cycling's golden girl Laura" on pages six and seven ("Harry's hot to Trott", apparently).

Yes, "like the rest of the nation, Harry was clearly smitten with Team GB's power-pedalling princess", we're told.

And the Daily Mail details "Gutsy rise of a sick little girl who grew up to win gold (and swig beer with a Prince)", providing a run-down of her triumph over a host of medical problems and a helpful little graphic showing her lucky charms and superstitions, should Paper Monitor ever feel the urge to follow in her footsteps/tracks.

The list includes lucky hairbands, lucky necklaces and lucky earrings.

And standing on a wet towel - although Trott "has not divulged how or why it started".

Sounds stressful at the top - time for a lie down, Paper Monitor feels.