Its good game, not a (d)art! (Darts)

Member Name: smuj83

Product:	Darts
Date:	27/06/01 (211 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to pick up, cheap, and a good laugh, in a pub!

Disadvantages: could lead to a beer belly or alcoholism? ;o)

(Sorry about the title...I had a mind blank!).

I started playing darts about a month ago. I was on holiday with my parents and friends, bored out of my mind in a crappy pub on the south coast. My parents and their friends were talking about the old days when the suggestion of darts popped up. They jumped up...assembled their darts and started hurling the sharp pointed arrows at the unsuspecting dart board. I must admit I was a little curious about how they were actually getting the scored they were getting because as far as I could see they were awarding them selves 45 for hitting a 15 (of courrse later I learned that the small bands are double and trebles). They persuaded me to have a go. After practising how to actually hit the board I actually started to enjoy the game and very quickly picked up the rules.

You can play singles or doubles, and the first team to reduce their score to nothing wins. Each team (or individual) starts off with either 301, 401 or 501 (I guess you could go higher or lower than this depending on how long you want the game to last.)

A dart board is numbered round the edge from 1 to 20 and is divided like a piece of cake (or pizza if you prefer). There are 2 colored bands al the way round the board going through all 20 sections. These are the double and treble sections. If you get the dart in one of these sections you get double or treble the points for that section. A bullseye is worth 50 and outer bull is 25. Each player gets 3 darts and takes it in turns to throw them, after each go the points are added up and deducted from that player or team's score. This may seem all pretty straight forward, and it is, until you have to finish the game. The most common rule is that you have to end with a double, so for example, you have 2 points remaining, if you hit a single 2, nothing is deducted, you must hit a double 1. (Double 1 is notoriously hard to get and is often referred to as 'madhouse').

Now
I've bored you to death I'll tell you what I really think of the game.

It is very easy to pick up and you have to be relaxed to play, one of my parents friends was a newcomer as well, he started off having trouble hitting the board, 3 pints or bitter later he was playing like a pro...so alcohol does actually help!!

Its not an expensive hobby (apart from maybe the alcohol after a while), the dart board can be provided by your local and a good set of darts can be picked up for a tenner. Its not really competetive, just a good laugh.

You've seen the board there in the corner of the pub, give it a go!

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