Order By Numbered List "1.2.3"

I have a requirement to sort data of the following format by ref:

ref heading
------------------
1 Section
1.1 Test
1.2 Blah
1.3 Another
1.4 Things
1.4.1 Stuff
1.4.2 Other
...
10.1.1 Something
10.10.1 Else
10.2 Blah blah
2 Some other section
2.1 Another sub-section
...
As this data is stored as a string, a simple "ORDER BY Ref" will not deliver the desired effect, but rather will sort the data alphabetically (1, 10, 2, 20, 3 etc.).

Is anyone able to suggest appropriate SQL syntax or point to some VB/VBA logic to address this issue?

Thanks in advance,


Rob.