PLAYING at toy soldiers, a weekend drinking club, part-timers who don't know the difference between the butt of a rifle and the business end.

These are just some of the stereotypes levelled, unfairly, at the Territorial Army according to a Runcorn Sgt major who has fought side-by-side with professional soldiers in Iraq.

"I don't think the TA gets the credit it deserves," says 37-year-old Andrew Hughes from Norton, a TA veteran of almost two decades.

"The Government is pushing for us to be used more and more, which I think can be a good thing, but people still think it's just something we do for a laugh on a weekend.

"But we're actually a sizeable force ready to be mobilised at short notice to pretty much anywhere in the world," adds the dad-of-two who spent six months away from his young family in the 50-degree heat of Basra.

"The image of us as a weekend drinking club playing at being soldiers has unfortunately stuck and years ago that might have been true," he said.

"But we are capable of doing everything that the full-time lads do and I think we proved that in Basra."

The TAs formed more than a quarter of an 850-strong 'Battle Group' assigned to enforce law and order and rebuild the city while simultaneously repelling the local militia.

Out of the wreckage of an abandoned hotel, Andrew and his fellow 'volunteers' manned control rooms, patrolled streets, trained Iraqi police and gathered intelligence, side-by-side with their professional counterparts from the King's and Cheshire's Regiment.

"Our relationship with 1-Cheshire was cagey at first and there was a bit of a stand-off while they worked out what we were like and what we could do," admits Andrew.

"But once they realised we were trained to basically do what they were, it was fine."

Any lingering doubts about the TA's commitment to the task in hand soon disappeared, literally, in smoke when militia attacked their hotel base with mortars.

"All the TA patrols had mortars and rockets fired at them at some point, and some were pretty close," Andrew, a service advisor for a Warrington car dealership, says.

"The locals' attitude to us was mostly pretty good. I think they appreciated the small changes we were trying to make.

"But there were parts of the city you wouldn't go unless it was vital.

"It would be obvious people there didn't like you and there was no point tempting fate and playing with people's lives."

After six months of searing heat - which forced soldiers to drink over 10 litres of water a day, endless patrols, and round-the-clock vigilance, Andrew and his colleagues returned to the north west and civilian life.

"It is two totally different worlds and the hardest thing is appreciating what your family has gone through while you've been away, and vice-versa. I still keep in touch with the TA lads but weekends are prime time for my family now, and it's good to be back.

"We certainly made a difference but it went pear-shaped over there and there were some close calls. It certainly wasn't a weekend drinking club."