TRAINING in conditions impossible to recreate at home is being undertaken by soldiers from Malvern and Worcester as part of Exercise Diamond Cutter.

C Company, of the 1st Battalion, Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, have been deployed in Botswana, in a remote tent camp west of Shoshong.

Soldiers, among them Private Russell Weaver, from Malvern, have been surviving in desert conditions, where the heat can top 40 degrees celsius and eight litres of water a day are needed to avoid dehydration. The exercise lasts until the end of the month.

As well as training, the soldiers took supplies to the Mothers' Union Orphan Centre, in Mahalapye, and have helped repair and repaint the building.

The regiment has a new boss in the shape of Colonel Johnny Hackett CBE. A Sword of Honour and Queen's Medal winner at Sandhurst, he was commissioned in the Sherwood Foresters before it amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment in 1970.

Col Hackett has served in Germany, Belize and Cyprus and was mentioned in dispatches when commanding the 1st Battalion in Northern Ireland.

His father, Jimmy, was the first colonel of the amalgamated regiment.

The annual reunion of the regiment is on June 1, at Worcester Rugby Club.