OPINION with Gerard Walsh

WELL done to Matt Campbell for making it to Bathurst.

Better still, he and lead driver Shane van Gisbergen were on the way to the podium and the middle of it late in the race.

They had tyre troubles at crucial times at both Sandown and Bathurst, perhaps they will be in luck at the Gold Coast 600 in a fortnight.

As Campbell said in a story last week, they will need a bit of luck to finish on the podium.

I can remember Campbell being at Morgan Park Raceway while still at school driving his Datsun and then a Formula 2 for Brisbane owner Frank Marshall.

You don't hear it mentioned too much on the television but Campbell was a regular in Darling Downs schoolboys hockey teams even if a lot of his sporting focus then was on motorsport.

The hand and eye co-ordination needed in hockey is also needed in motorsport.

It is scary to be watching Bathurst and see a car that looks like the one you are backing heading off the track as it did late in the race when van Gisbergen was at the wheel.

You have to give credit to van Gisbergen for the way he made up ground twice after dropping back twice late in the race.

If you wanted to find a sportsman or driver who never gives up, the New Zealand-born driver would fit the bill and he has proved to be an expert at overtaking.

Basketball returns

THE return of big time basketball to Warwick and the Darling Downs is great news for the sport.

The fans like the Saturday afternoon and night games.

Back when Warwick was in the Southern Basketball League, I went to one game and half a dozen of the Warwick Cowboys A-grade rugby league players were in the crowd, which indicated to me that fans like the inter-town battles.

At the weekend, Warwick beat Stanthorpe in A-grade basketball. The towns will battle in another sport, cricket, on November 5.