T-SQL (SS2K8) :: Selecting Latest Record With Info

I have created the following SQL snippet that is a very simple mock-up illustrating the problem (I hope!) that I am facing:

-- create table
if object_id('tempdb..#tmpdelnotes') is not null
drop table #tmpdelnotes

create table #tmpdelnotes(
DelNote int identity (1,1) ,
DelDate date not null,
Item int not null,
Customer int not null)

[code]...

What I need to retrieve is a unique list of item numbers with information about the latest (DelDate) delivery note. The "Clumsy workaround" works, but is not very pretty when doing multiple table joins. Is it really necessary to use a derived table for this kind of query? Window functions can only exist in the SELECT and ORDER BY clauses, which is understandable since the calculations take place (I would guess) after the aggregations in the HAVING clause.