One hundred and EIGHTY! (Darts - General)

Member Name: fluidfernando

Product:	Darts - General
Date:	17/02/05 (1364 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for numeracy skills, Available to most ages, Cheap to play

Disadvantages: None

Darts

I have been playing darts for a good few years now (ok, about 7, but I'm only 19 so that's over a third of my life!), and I am going to try to convince you that darts isn't just about lager louts passing their seemingly endless times at a pub burning 20 calories a day at a so-called "sport"!

Darts is a game that you can play on your own, or with more than one player. There are very many variants of the game that you can play, and a lot more that you can make up. In competition play, the most popular "modes" of play are 501 and the less common 301.

Darts is a social game that can be learnt by anyone. The idea is that you have three darts, and by throwing them at a board, you get certain points for getting the dart into certain areas. Smaller areas like "doubles", "trebles", and "bullseye" have higher points.

There are 20 numbers on a dartboard, 1-20, each with their own single, double, and treble area. Say if you hit a 12, and it landed in the smaller treble section of the segment - you get 36 points for that dart. If you ever wondered why 180 is such a shout on TV it is because it is the maximum 3 dart score you can get (treble 20 + treble 20 + treble 20). Also the bullseye is made from two rings, a smaller one and a bigger one. The bigger (outer) ring is worth 25 points, to the inner's 50.

Hitting the trebles, doubles, and bullseye's is no easy feat. The bullseye itself is about the size of a 5p coin. Trebles are about 2.5cm x 1cm in area, and doubles are about 5cm x 1cm in area. In darts, misses of just 1mm can determine a win or a loss of a championship.

The number 501 corresponds to the number of points that a player has to reach exactly to win a "leg" (like a frame in snooker). Using your darts, you take turns throwing three darts each to try to get to 0. However, to make it harder, you must finish off with a double. So for example, if you have only 24 left to score, you must finish with a double 12, or equivalent (ie if you hit a single 2 you then need to hit a double 11, etc) 301 is the same concept, however you start from 301 and work your way down rather than 501. Normally winning 3 legs gives you a set. But rules change variant to gender and competition. Other games can be made up and found on many websites very easily.

The dartboard arrangement is a fairly peculiar one, much like the QWERTY setting on a keyboard. Why are they arranged like this? The answer is actually similar to why the settings on a keyboard are as they are. The QWERTY setting was intended so slow typists down because when in the days of typewriters that women wrote the letters due to go to families from the army etc, they typed too fast - thus jamming the keys. So, this new system was made to slow it down. In a way, this is similar to why dartboards are arranged as they are. Say for example, if the board went 1 2 3 4 5 6 all the way round, to get a "high" number of say 15-20 minimum, it wouldn't be too hard, as you effectively have a quarter of the board to aim for.

The arrangement is credited to a man called Brian Gamlin, a carpenter from Bury. He made this design in order to punish mistakes. For example on a dartboard the 1 and 20 are next to each other - a potential 59 point difference for 2mm miss. This encouraged accuracy in the player's and hence built the skill involved in consistently hitting higher numbers. Mathematicians worked out the "perfect" arrangement for a dartboard, and apparently Gamlin's arrangement was nearly perfect - which is impressive considering that there are 121645100408832000 arrangements!

Players stand behind what's called an "oche" - this is a step or piece of wood in which the players must stand behind as to become too close to the dartboard. It used to be called "hockey" ironically, but now is called "oche" from a Flemish derivation.

In recent years, darts has become ever so popular. I love the game myself, it is just a fun thing to do - trying to beat a friend or family member - and I have to admit, is quite good to play in a pub - however I do not have the beer belly (yet...... :P) It is just a good game to play to pass time with your friends/family. There are two main organizations of darts (a bit like Rugby is split into League and Union) - we are only used to seeing one of the tournament sectors on television, where sadly the world champion (and undisputed best darts player in the world - Phil Taylor) plays in the other sector!

Although there are many tournaments around the world each year, the main one in this other sector is played in Frimley Green, the Embassy World Darts Organization is extremely popular now, with many more countries than used to taking part. In the past, only UK countries generally were recognized, however, in Holland the sport is HUGE now. Other countries like USA, Canada, Germany, and others follow darts pretty heavily now. The championships are so exciting to watch. The room hosting the tournament is HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEE where there must be about 2,000+ people watching the two players. People dress up, put face paints on, create banners (it is like the crowd from a World Cup Football tournament) - the atmosphere is electric, and the players on stage must feel such a buzz playing, and must feel all the tension too!

If you want to play darts, it isn't that expensive to play. A dart set typically will cost you between £5-£20 - depending on the make and quality. Tungsten nickel darts are the generally good ones. And darts vary also in weight - the heavier ones being the easier ones to control.

A dartboard itself again will cost you about £15-£30 depending on the quality. Some have boards in which you can write the scores down (which I think is useful) which you write on with chalk. There is nothing else you need to play the game after that.

Darts tend to last a few months depending on how often you play. If you are a bad thrower and miss the dartboard, hitting concrete or something can damage the tip of the dart, and after time the flights can split. It's always handy to carry spare flights, shafts, and tips in case you lose or break one.

Another great plus about playing darts is that it is very good for your mental arithmetic. Often in playing you will need to add numbers, subtract them, multiply them. Although at first it may be hard, when you play for a long time you get in tune these numbers in your head and it all becomes easier, improving your numeracy skills. After a while you tend to calculate very quickly that a treble 14 + double 19 + treble 12 is 116.

Getting a 180 in play is very tough, but is very very exhilirating. In the length of time I have played I have got 7 180's which is not bad I think. When you get one, it feels like you have scored a hat-trick or you have potted a 147 in snooker - it's just something that is a big accomplishment. I photographed my first 180!!!

Talk is, that darts is being considered to be in the future Olympics. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but I would not condone it. This is how big darts is getting now.

Anyone from almost any age can give darts a go - even if it is for 30 mins at their local pub or at home, just see what it is like - I am sure you will LOVE it - and who knows, if you get to any decent level you may find yourself playing for your pub, your town, your county, maybe even your country one day!

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