DETERMINED Pop Idol competitor Hayley Bamford has vowed to make it to the top of the music industry - despite failing to get into the finals of the television talent contest.

Hayley, 20, of White Cross Road, York, received less than 3.5 per cent of the public vote on Saturday night, which was the score of fifth runner-up Vanessa Cavanagh.

But her father, Steve, said she was determined to make a go of it despite her disappointment.

He said: "She's going to make it. She hasn't had her voice trained. What you hear is what you get, and that's just from singing in her bedroom.

"She's got the voice, she looks good as well - she will make it."

The last two places on the finals board were taken by Aaron Bayley and Rik Waller, who hit the headlines because of his size and because an email campaign was launched in order to get him voted into the finals.

Hayley, who entered the competition after her neighbour spotted details in a national paper and suggested she should go for it, sang Whitney Houston's Saving All My Love For You.

Three of the four judges gave her the thumbs up for her impressive performance, although producer Simon Cowley said: "It didn't blow me away."

However, none of the judges predicted the former York College student would be the public's choice.

It was standing room only around the television set at Hayley Bamford's house as the programme unfolded.

The singing hopeful's two brothers, Joe and Tom, her sister, Katie, dad, Steve, as well as the five-strong Branscombe family from next door-but-one and Katie's friend, Fabienne, all crowded nervously around the box waiting for the public's judgement.

One member of the clan had had an ear clamped to the phone since the voting lines opened more than two hours earlier, and estimates of the number of calls made ran into three figures.

Then the screams and shouts started as the programme hit the screen again: "Get on with it," "No-one will have voted for him," "Hayley was definitely the best."

Next came the judges' predictions for Aaron, Sarah, Rik, Darius, Aaron and Rik again - but no sign of Hayley's name.

Then the results. There were cheers as Vanessa's and Sarah's names were called. Now that Hayley's female competition was discarded, could she possibly win?

Everyone was standing in exultation when Darius was named as third runner-up. Success was just two names away.

But realisation dawned when Aaron was announced in second place. "Oh no, not Rik," came the calls.

Then the competitor described by Pete Waterman as "That fat geezer" stepped up to take his position as the last finalist in the competition and silence fell in the Bamford house.

Optimism prevailed as Steve proudly announced that his daughter would make it, anyway, with or without the help of the television programme.

But for now it was all over.

Updated: 12:33 Monday, December 03, 2001