Vlad

I have tried that, but there are very few deleted records.

It does optimise the query, but because it selects all of tabe1 records, and then filters on the 2nd table afterwards, it takes agaes.

I could swap it around, so that the initial table is Table2, but that won't always be the case.

So I'm really looking for a work-around.

THanks
Kev