HTML:

<table class="test">

<thead>

<tr>

<th>title1</th>

<th>title2</th>

<th>title3</th>

</tr>

</thead>

<tbody>

<tr><td><a href="#">link</a></td><td></td><td></td></tr>

<tr><td><a href="#">link</a></td><td></td><td></td></tr>

<tr><td><a href="#">link</a></td><td></td><td></td></tr>

</tbody>

</table>

JAVASCRIPT:

var _table = $('table.test');

var _items = _table.find('a');

var _rows1 = _table.find('tbody tr') normal array of objects (1,2,3)

var _rows2 = _items.parents('tr') reversed array of objects (3,2,1)

In jquery 1.3.2 it seems to work well.