STEVE ISAAC stormed out of the Liverpool Victoria English National Championships at The Triangle, Burgess Hill yesterday after a performance which he could only describe as "shocking."

The 25-year-old England international from Worthing lost to Kent's fifth seed Richard Doling 15-6, 15-4 in 32 minutes following a comfortable 15-4, 15-6 first-round win over Stephen Bish of Essex .

And Isaac, who has slipped to

No 7 in the national rankings, moaned: "It wasn't the best of days for me. I was shocking.

"I didn't stick at my game plan and started going for the lines when he scrambled things back.

"At 5-5 in the first game I got the hump and tried to hit winners all over the place and ended up putting the shuttle out. It certainly wasn't how I planned it."

Manfred Tripp, Isaac's 27-year-old Sussex team-mate, lost 15-11, 15-9 in the first round against Andrew South of Nottingham.

But all seven seeds made today's men's quarter-finals. Shropshire's 1997 runner-up Steffan Pandya is the only non-seed, but ten-time champion Darren Hall remains the player to beat even at 34.

Maidstone's Peter Knowles, the only other player to win this title in the Hall era, was the most impressive performer on the opening day.

He beat George Wood of Warwickshire 15-1, 15-3 in 20 minutes in the first round then crushed Greig Saunders of Surrey 15-0, 15-1 in a mere 16 minutes.

The only shock of the day was the withdrawal of European champion Chris Hunt from the men's doubles.

He and Donna Kellogg had survived the first day's longest match in their opening mixed doubles 16-17, 17-16, 15-3 against Yorkshire's Nitin Panesar and Sarah Petch but, stricken by tonsilitis, the 30-year-old from Bolton was so exhausted that he pulled out of the men's event.

Sussex 24-year-old Lesley Paine showed her male county counterparts how it's done. She stormed past Lindsay Orchard 11-1, 11-2 in just 18 minutes to earn her place in the last eight after opening with a 11-3, 11-2 first-round win over Paula Harrison of Essex.

Her reward is a quarter-final this morning against Yorkshire's third seed Justine Willmott.

Nineteen-year-old Harriet Johnson, who had a first-round bye, lost 11-1, 11-7 to Jersey's Elizabeth Cann in round two.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.