problem w/ insert of temp table

Heads up sorry about the long post. I have been analyzing a very harsh query to no avail. I'd like to see if anybody sees any problems. The offensive SQL: SELECT a.id , a.createdate , b.playerid , b.firstname , b.lastname , b.pos , c.city , c.name , c.url , monthnames.abb3 , sourceid FROM tbl1 a , tbl2 b , tbl3 c , monthnames WHERE monthnames.number=MONTH(f.MODIFYDATE) and c.sportsym='FB' and c.sportsym=b.sportsym and b.sportsym=a.sportsym and c.teamid = p.team and b.playerid = a.playerid and a.type in (4,5,....,255) ORDER BY a.id DESC; Removing the order by reduces the query from about three minutes to around 6 seconds. I have updated statistics on the tables and have checked to sqexplain.out file. sqexplain.out file: Estimated Cost: 550 Estimated # of Rows Returned: 1 Temporary Files Required For: Order By 1) informix.c: INDEX PATH (1) Index Keys: sportsym (Serial, fragments: ALL) Lower Index Filter: informix.c.sportsym = 'FB' 2) informix.a: INDEX PATH Filters: informix.f.type IN (4 , 5 , ... , 255 ) (1) Index Keys: sportsym (Serial, fragments: ALL) Lower Index Filter: informix.c.sportsym = informix.a.sportsym NESTED LOOP JOIN 3) informix.monthnames: INDEX PATH (1) Index Keys: number (Serial, fragments: ALL) Lower Index Filter: informix.monthnames.number = MONTH (informix.a.modifydate ) NESTED LOOP JOIN 4) informix.b: INDEX PATH Filters: informix.c.teamid = informix.b.team (1) Index Keys: playerid sportsym (Serial, fragments: ALL) Lower Index Filter: (informix.b.playerid = informix.a.playerid AND informix.b.sportsym = informix.a.sportsym ) NESTED LOOP JOIN I have also tried to remove the ORDER BY and instead use a TEMP table for the result set. Ultimately, my goal was to create an index DESC on the TEMP|ID column after inserting the results and then select out the results. I now get a 4 minute delay in just inserting the results in the TEMP table (w/o the ORDER BY). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Corey Herbel (Newly appointed DBA, but still green)