Section 4: Players & Officials
Two teams of 16 to 20 players face each other, and — unusually — the whole team changes role at once. There are no specialist positions in the way a football team has them: every player strikes when their side is striking, and every player fields when it is not.
- Strikers: Each player on the striking side takes their own turn at the Bock before the innings changes over. The whip of the Stecken takes years to learn, so clubs tend to carry a wide spread of ability and the order matters.
- Fielders: The same players, once the roles swap, spread down the Ries with their Schindeln. Reading the flight of a small, fast, high puck is the core defensive skill, and the sport is followed as closely for a good interception as for a long strike.
- Officials: The decisions that must be made are narrow but consequential — whether a Hornuss was brought down before it landed, and which numbered zone it first touched. Both feed straight into what is recorded against the fielding team, so both are judged on the field as play proceeds.
Hornussen is a club and village sport, amateur and strongly regional — it is concentrated in the Bernese Mittelland and Emmental, and clubs compete within cantonal and federal associations.