Has anyone looked into the MySQL binary support in Sphinx 0.9.9? It seems to me like this would greatly simplify the integration of Sphinx into vB. The gist of it is:
"The ultimate new feature couple is MySQL binary protocol and SphinxQL query language. Meaning that searchd can now pretend it's mysqld. Meaning that you can use ye good olde mysql command-line client to connect to searchd and fire your queries using regular SELECT syntax!"
For more info:
http://sphinxsearch.com/docs/current.html#sphinxql