"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

While playing under the banner of the Mt Hawthorn Baptist Church, both the Five Senses men’s and women’s teams made their recent grand finals with the men’s team winning and the women’s team unfortunately falling short of the prize.

Five Senses is always renowned for everyone gathering for lunch at the same time and engaging in interesting conversation. The discussions include a number of different topics from the interesting and exotic single origins or blends that are currently in the hoppers, to an Eagles versus Dockers debate, to a complete Monday and Thursday debrief of the Five Senses basketball teams performances on the weekends.

Jay, Richo, Brad and Ash all play on Saturdays and Wednesday nights. Their Wednesday team is considered reasonable casual, but the Saturday Men’s A1 Baptist Basketball competition at Lakeside Recreation Centre is far from.

The debrief’s are either “what went wrong” sessions and what they could’ve done different to win and reminiscing their brilliance such as Jay and Richo sinking endless three pointers, Ash hitting 54 points in one game (no, that’s not a miss-print) and Brad’s brilliant control holding the boys together with his consistent brilliance in the clutch times.

So … it was a few weeks ago, the teams made it to the Baptist Basketball Grand Final — the boys from fourth place after piping ex-Wildcat Ricky Grace’s team in the semis.

All dressed in green the full Five Senses crew rocked on down to aggressively support the one sided affair. A few of the lunch time basketball conversation contributors walked into the centre to see the boys hard at work (cough) on their warm-ups, with Dean chucking up a few shots acting as though he knew something about basketball. The teams took their positions on the court, and the game was on. Brad kept the game under control for the duration, Ash followed the oppositions leading scorer like a shadow and Jay and Rich kept the points rolling in by lighting it up from the arc, while they surged to a handy seven point lead at the half. In the second half, Mt Hawthorn ran away with it with a resounding 60-44 victory.

The girls on the other hand had a more difficult challenge. The women’s final between minor premiers Claremont Baptist and Mt Hawthorn Baptist, which consisted of Jenny from the WA Barista Academy; Crystal — Roaster Jay’s wife; Charlene — Roaster Rich’s wife; Erin — Operations Manager Brad’s wife; Tara — Marketing Ash’s wife; and Vicky — Service Ash’s wife.

The game got off to a frenetic start … plenty of fouls, plenty of points. Claremont could’ve been further in front had they hit their free throws, but accurate shooting from Jenny made it only a three point game at the half. Claremont’s free throw shooting improved in the second half, despite Erin Butler hitting a triple and seven second half points. Mt Hawthorn couldn’t close the gap and Claremont prevailed by seven.

Congratulations to Ash, Jen and Vicky who all made the allstar team for their prospective grades.