At almost ‘half-time’ in the Central London League, Bryan Kwan’s Apex 1 remain unbeaten – but they are not top!

They beat the league favourites St Katherine’s Trust 6-4 in October but Derek Abrefa’s team lead by seven points. Lying in third place are Hassan El Kaakour’s Morpeth 1, closely followed by Fusion 1, for whom Joshua Bruce has been performing well.

Brandon Sangchin’s Fulham Brunswick are snapping at their heels. Moberley are faring quite well with Niall Cameron, Jojo Senorin and Jack Sandler, but the three of them have never played together on the same night! At the bottom of the top half of this division are AA Academy SjoA who could do with Romayne Stewart (89%) appearing more often.

In Division 1’s places 8-14 it’s a bit of a scramble where St Katherine’s Trust 2 are a whisker ahead of five Morpeth teams and the Fusion Juniors who are just about keeping their heads above water thanks largely to Francesco Bonato’s 70%.

I suspect Morpeth cannot sustain six teams in Division 1 and at least one of them is likely to be relegated. The best junior performance this season arguably comes from Apex 1’s Adam Alibhai (pictured above) who has earned 89%.

Division 2 is rock solid this season and it’s already looking like a three-horse race between St Katherine’s Trust 3 (with Laikram Persaud on 88%), Flick TTC with Alberto Garrido and Yifu Zhang both on 100% – Laikram didn’t play them!) and in third place is Morpeth 7 led by Derrick Wang (81%).

TT Fight Club are in fourth led by Georges Sokol. Lurking in fifth place is Fusion 3 who are benefitting from the experience of Martin Smith, Everton Waite and Richard Jermyn. The two teams currently looking to be in trouble are Apex II and Exiles I who have won four and three matches respectively but remain well adrift of the pack. Both will need to strengthen in the second half if they are to avoid the plunge.

That brings me to Division 3 which is led by Fulham Brunswick II and Irving I. Fulham remain unbeaten but have drawn three matches. Irving look set to pass them as they have an outstanding fixture against the bottom team. When Arturas Rybakas and Jean-Guy Sylvestre get together for Irving they are virtually unbeatable.

It’s Ronaldo Duke who has led Fusion 4 into third place. In the mid-table Irving II are led by the young and talented Sebastian Hitchcock-Spencer who seems destined for dizzy heights! But Irving III is just ahead of them thanks largely to Isaac Li.

Lingering around the foot of the table are Highbury 1, TT Fight Club II and Apex III. Highbury have postponed a couple of matches so they could move to safety but any loss of bonus points could prove costly.

A glance at Division 4 reveals a two-horse race between two unbeaten teams – Flick TTC 2 and Fusion 5. Flick have the benefit of Zicen Liao on 100% while Fusion have 100% from Simone Santarsiero. Morpeth 9 and Apex 4 are propping up the rest.

Fusion 7 top Division 5 with 94% from Shan Jiang. TJTTC 2 and Clissold 4 lead Division 6. Henry Ulzen-Plange has 95.8% and Kevin Edge 94.7%. Fusion 10 Juniors appear to be running away with Division 7 thanks mostly to 100% from Luca Murphy-Gonzalez and 86% from Alfred Morley.