I am using a query that takes an average of all the records for each given id...
$query = \"SELECT bline_id, AVG(flow) as flowavg
FROM blf
Another option is to simulate ROW_NUMBER().
This statement creates a counter and resets it every time it encounters a new bline_id. It then filters out any records that aren't in the first 10 rows.
SELECT bline_id,
Avg(flow) avg
FROM (SELECT id,
bline_id,
flow,
date,
CASE
WHEN @previous IS NULL
OR @previous = bline_id THEN @rownum := @rownum + 1
ELSE @rownum := 1
end rn,
@previous := bline_id
FROM blf,
(SELECT @rownum := 0,
@previous := NULL) t
WHERE bline_id > 0 and bline_id < 31
ORDER BY bline_id,
date DESC,
id) t
WHERE rn < 11
GROUP BY bline_id
DEMO
It's worthwhile seeing this in action by removing the group by and looking at intermediate results