Almost at half-time in the Central London League, Bryan Kwan’s Apex 1 remain unbeaten – but they’re not top!
They beat league favorites St Katherine’s Trust 6-4 in October, but Derek Abrefa’s team led by seven points. In third place is Hassan El Kaakour’s Morpeth 1, closely followed by Fusion 1, for whom Joshua Bruce has performed well.
Brandon Sangchin’s Fulham Brunswick are hot on their heels. Moberley is doing quite well with Niall Cameron, Jojo Senorin and Jack Sandler, but they have never played together on the same night! At the bottom of the top half of this division are AA Academy SjoA who could use Romayne Stewart (89%) more often.
In places 8-14 of Division 1 it’s a bit of a struggle with St Katherine’s Trust 2 ahead of five Morpeth teams and the Fusion Juniors just about keeping their heads above water, largely thanks to Francesco Bonato’s 70%.
My guess is that Morpeth can’t keep up with six teams in Division 1 and at least one of them will probably be relegated. Perhaps the best junior performance this season comes from Apex 1’s Adam Alibhai (pictured above), who earned 89%.
Division 2 is very strong this season and it already looks like a three-horse race between St Katherine’s Trust 3 (with Laikram Persaud at 88%), Flick TTC with Alberto Garrido and Yifu Zhang both at 100% – Laikram didn’t play against them!) and in third place is Morpeth 7 led by Derrick Wang (81%).
TT Fight Club is in fourth place led by Georges Sokol. In fifth place is Fusion 3, which benefits from the experience of Martin Smith, Everton Waite and Richard Jermyn. The two teams currently looking to get into trouble are Apex II and Exiles I, who have won four and three games respectively but remain far adrift in the pack. Both will need to get stronger in the second half if they want to avoid the dive.
That brings me to mind Division 3 which is led by Fulham Brunswick II and Irving I. Fulham remains undefeated but has drawn three games. It looks like Irving will pass them as they have an excellent game against the bottom team. When Arturas Rybakas and Jean-Guy Sylvestre come together for Irving, they are virtually unbeatable.
It is Ronaldo Duke who led Fusion 4 to third place. In the center of the table, Irving II is led by the young and talented Sebastian Hitchcock-Spencer, who seems destined for dizzying heights! But Irving III is just ahead of them, thanks in large part to Isaac Li.
At the foot of the table hang Highbury 1, TT Fight Club II and Apex III. Highbury have postponed a few games so they can get to safety, but any loss of bonus points could be costly.
A look at Division 4 reveals a two-horse race between two undefeated teams – Flick TTC 2 and Fusion 5. Flick has the advantage over Zicen Liao at 100%, while Fusion has 100% over Simone Santarsiero. Morpeth 9 and Apex 4 support the rest.
Fusion7 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 seems to be running away with it Division 7 mainly thanks to 100% from Luca Murphy-Gonzalez and 86% from Alfred Morley.
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