> Or is there another/better way to do the same thing?

Basically, if you want display only first records in grid, all you
need is just to fetch only them. Most of Delphi components do it
automatically unless you configure them to fetch all records on dataset
open.
I'd strongly advice you not to use FIRST-SKIP for it. You'll get more
problems than you are truing to solve. But if you insist that the hell
is your desired destination - use parentheses around parameters. I.e.
SELECT FIRST (:NumRows) SKIP (:SkipRows) ...

SY, SD.