Adeline has the Axa factor

SHE'S the small woman with the big voice - and today Adeline Houghton is the toast of her colleagues at Axa after winning the company's own talent contest.

The 21-year-old insurance worker from Woodbridge Road in Ipswich won the Axa Factor contest at Ipswich's Curve Bar with a great performance of the jazz classic “I Just Want to Make Love to You.”

And next month she will have the nerve-wracking experience of performing in front of about 25,000 football fans at Town's match against Leeds next month which is sponsored by the company.

She edged ahead of 11 other contestants who had won through to the final of the competition which is loosely based on the TV show X factor.

Adeline's performance in the first round of the final proved crucial - she won a thumping victory in the secret ballot of her colleagues and words of praise from the judges who included managers from the company, last year's Axa Factor winner Danny Featherstone, and a musical expert from The Evening Star.

Her victory came in spite of a lack-lustre second song - the judges agreed that her first performance had been the highlight of the whole event.

Other highlights included Axa boss Andy Fairchild linking up with Richard Shanks to murder - or administer a mercy killing, depending on your point of view - the Wham number Bad Boys.

And the group Axa Sway was determined to inject a camp element into the whole event which the audience clearly loved.

After winning Adeline was sure it proved she had been a jazz lover in a previous life.

She said: “I've always loved jazz and I was thinking what to sing. I heard this and thought, that's what I should do - and it paid off.”

She's been temping at Axa for three months, but after winning the contest and making a big noise for herself at the company, she said she was now hoping to stay permanently.

“I suppose everyone will know who I am now!” she laughed at the end.