>>That cracked it. It in fact did make the query faster, there were more deleted records in the table than I realised.
>
>Be careful. It is my experience that an index on deleted() can make local queries (not over a network), and with few records, faster; but the same query over a network, and with many more records, might actually get slower. Before deciding to keep the index on deleted(), you should test under real-life circumstances, for instance, over a network and with the number of records you expect to have in the near future.
Really? I haven't encountered this -- under what circumstances is this the case?
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. - Bertrand Russell