DORKING Rugby Club went top of National League Three London on Saturday without stepping on to the pitch.
The Red & Whites were handed a walkover victory over Staines when their hosts could not muster enough players for the match and coupled with Barnes' defeat at the hands of Old Elthamians, it meant Dorking rose to the summit.
Director of rugby Richie Andrews said it was a bit of a damp squib though.
He said: "It feels a bit flat really, I would rather have played and gone top because you would have thought we would have got a bonus point against Staines.
"But we got five points and didn't accumulate any injuries, so you can look at it that way."
Andrews revealed that he received a call at 10.45am on the morning of the game from the Staines coach, informing him that he could not raise enough players for the match.
Andrews said: "The coach said he only had 13 players, it was ridiculous. There's no point playing against 13 people and it just gets registered as them not being able to field a team.
"You want to be playing sport, you don't want to be handed something, but we'll take it. Their coach was very apologetic and you're allowed 70 players registered to your club and there's people on our sheet that would really shock me if they had to represent the first team, so for Staines to only be able to muster 13 is incredible.
"It's going to take a lot of work to build that team up again."
Andrews also expressed his surprise at Barnes' defeat to Old Elthamians.
"I was very surprised," he said. "That's a great result for Elthamians and for us as well. Old Elthamians are a good side, but the way Barnes played against us was very open and very expansive and with the weather closing in maybe they were not able to adapt to the conditions.
"It helped our promotion hopes no end and I just hope we can do the same when we play them in January, that would put a bit of daylight between us."
Dorking have a week off this weekend, before they face two home games with lowly Tring and Guernsey before the Christmas break.
All being well, they should be top of the table at Christmas, more than halfway through the season.
Andrews finished: "If you look at the form books and the league table, then yes we should win both but you can't be complacent. If we win those two games it sets us up for the three big games in January. This is where we want to be, sitting top at the halfway stage."