SQL extract a row from a set of rows

Hi,

A result of an sql command is returning multiple rows from a transaction file like this :

Client Date Amount
Client1 79899898 100
Client1 79909898 10
Client1 79919898 100
Client1 79929898 900

How can I get the amount from the first row? This corresponds to the last entry, as the date field is numeric and equal to 99999999 - date field. I have a key on this field, but no way of joining to it from my client file.

At the moment, I'm running a WITH T As ( ) kind of expression on the transaction file to get the minimum date value for a client and then joining to that.

This makes for a very long execution time. Surely there's a better way?

Thanks