Tottenham beat Reading thanks to fine outings for Thomas Frank’s new signings Mohammed Kudus and Luka Vuskovic

It is rarely wise to read deeply into pre-season fixtures. Especially the opening one. Yet when it is the first game for a manager at a club, the temptation is there. How can it not be? The initial glimpses offer the outline of the plan.

Thomas Frank got his Tottenham tenure under way with a 2-0 win over Reading at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Saturday afternoon. He played different XIs in each half and the goals came early in the second period from Will Lankshear and Luka Vuskovic. For the latter, it represented the gloss on an eye-catching first appearance.

• 2nd ODI: England, 116-2, bt India, 143-8, by eight wkts (DLS method)

• Jones hits unbeaten 46 to lead charge in run chase

If you’ve not yet seen the blockbuster trailer directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha, shot at Lord’s by the England and Wales Cricket Board to promote its 2025 summer of cricket, make sure to search it out . It’s a slightly odd piece of theatre involving Heather Knight, Lauren Filer and Danni Wyatt-Hodge, which culminates in Wyatt-Hodge attempting to run out Filer with a samosa.

None of the above were actually on show at Lord’s on Saturday – Knight is injured, Wyatt-Hodge is not in the ODI squad and Filer was dropped for this fixture in favour of Em Arlott – but the key players on this stage were actually a different pair. Because, of course, the “Whack It Like Wyatt-Hodge” trailer was gently poking fun at the storm that erupted last time India played at this ground three years ago, when Deepti Sharma controversially ran out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers end.

The Northern Irish club that produced Willie John McBride and Syd Millar is steeped in the history of the Lions even if it has no players in the 2025 squad

An hour before kick-off, and I’m beginning to wonder if watching the first Test at Ballymena RFC was such a bright idea. It’s only me and the girl working the bar, and she doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether or not Tom Curry should be playing No 7. “Which paper did you say you were with, the Ballymena Guardian?” No, it’s the other Guardian, I say. “Oh, the Antrim one.”

Just about the time I was beginning to think that all of Ballymena’s thousand-or-so members must have been among the tens of thousands going the other way into Portrush for the Open, they began to trickle in, one, two, three, four dozen, and more.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterates willingness to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin face to face

Kyiv has proposed to Moscow a new round of peace talks next week, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, after negotiations stalled in early June.

Two rounds of talks in Istanbul between Moscow and Kyiv failed to result in any progress towards a ceasefire, instead yielding large-scale prisoner exchanges and deals to return the bodies of killed soldiers.

• Howe: ‘I’m confident he’ll be here at start of the season’

• Celtic canter to 4-0 win in friendly on Saturday

Eddie Howe is confident Alexander Isak will stay at Newcastle this summer despite omitting the striker from a pre-season thrashing by Celtic because of speculation over his future.

Isak was left out of the 4-0 defeat at Celtic Park on Saturday despite being fit to play. The Newcastle manager claimed the decision was taken to manage the striker’s minutes in pre-season, but also as a consequence of recent transfer speculation.

• 1500m specialist to contact Holmes over worlds dilemma

• Kenya’s Koech stuns home hope Kerr in men’s 1500m

What does a hitherto 1500m specialist do when they cannot stop winning over 800m? Call the expert, of course. Back when she concluded a remarkable first full season as a runner with Olympic 1500m bronze in Paris last summer, Georgia Hunter Bell’s path appeared to be set. Why change a successful formula?

But change she has, and victory over 800m in London on Saturday provided a second win in her past two Diamond League races over the distance, having won in Stockholm last month.

• Euro 2025 quarter-final updates, 8pm BST kick-off

• Schedule | Top scorers | Player guide | Email Sarah

Hello and welcome to the final quarter-final of Euro 2025 between France and Germany. This game is set to be an absolute belter.

France finished the group stage with three wins from three which was thoroughly impressive as they found themselves in the group of death with England, the Netherlands and Wales.

Exclusive: Review of Home Office procedures ordered after ‘shambolic’ disciplinary process relating to Steve Dann

A Home Office investigation has found one of its most senior officials harassed and behaved inappropriately towards a female colleague, before being able to leave the civil service with an unblemished record after a “shambolic” disciplinary process.

The case has caused such alarm in the department that the new permanent secretary, Antonia Romeo, has ordered an immediate review of complaints, conduct and disciplinary procedures to “ensure confidence in the integrity of the system”.

Christian group Generation Life has sent 20somethings to do ‘beach outreach’ at the US haven for hedonism for two decades. A lot about young people’s sex lives – and their sales pitch – has changed

By the time the young man in red swim shorts sprinted up the beach to Chiara MacGillivray and Jon Sechuk, the two twentysomethings had yet to convince a single Jersey shore partier to join their crusade for chastity.

In fairness, convincing young people to remain “chaste” until marriage is a hard sell at the best of times. And the members of Generation Life knew that Saturday in June at the Jersey shore – a stretch of sand south of Atlantic City so renowned for horniness, drunkenness and reality TV show antics that its very name has become a synonym for hedonism – was not exactly a good time for chastity. It may have even been the worst possible time.