Well I can't believe it but turning off the Auto create statistics at the database level meant the query ran successfully. But I left auto update statistics enabled.

Why would...

Yep - nothing else is running and there's no blocking I can remove the transaction commit statements but still the same.

I've created a new database on local storage, same outcome...

You'll always be 'one of the boys' to us.

Looking forward to future editorials.

Moe

Adding (20,2) worked.

Thanks so much both 😀

Cloning the live database which is enormous would stain our network. Ideally we want say, 100 rows from each table into the corresponding table in an empty database.

Is this...