We now come to the question of sport. The perfectly mown grass of England and lack of anything better to do lead to Cricket; the hills and dales of Scotland gave rise to Golf; the beer, space and plethora of Sundays in the States resulted, almost inevitably, in Baseball. So what type of sport would arise from the fertile open fields of the Swiss Mittelland?
Hornussen!
Jen and I happened to notice a sign saying that one of the Swiss Championship games (between the local boys from Belp and the formidable Toffen crew) would be played just down the hill from our house, so naturally, we had to check it out. Despite being a championship game, jen and I sat together with 3 old guys (who used to be on the Belp team) as the only fans in attendance. They were terribly kind and explained all the rules...and then explained them again since I was thoroughly perplexed.
Through the eyes of the uninitiated, Hornussen appears to be a game in which a player from team A hits a little ball is hit as far as possible using an elongated, flexible base drum mallet, while all the players of team B throw wooden pizza oven spatulas in the air. Although, it is possible that it is more complex.
What you see below is one of the batters hitting the hornuss. They usually get the little black puck to fly about 300 meters. The object for the batters is to hit the hornuss as far as possible, and hopefully get it to land within the playing field.
This is where the fielding team comes in. Their job is to stop the hornuss before it hits the ground. If the hornuss hits the ground in the playing field, they loose (at least that seems to be what the old guy was saying). If they successfully stop the hornuss, then only the distances count. So, assuming that everyone in the field does their job, the team that can hit the hornuss the farthest, and stop the hornuss the quickest in the field, wins. It is just that simple.
Since photos hardly do justice to this sport, here is a short video.
No comments:
Post a Comment