Darts - history - scores - Height and distance

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The game, the board, the scores, the history, the organisations

Darts is a game, or rather a variety of related games, in which darts are thrown at a circular target (dart board) hung on a wall. Though various different boards and games have been used in the past, the term 'darts' usually now refers to a standardized game involving a specific board design and set of rules.

As well as being a professional competitive sport, darts is a traditional pub game, commonly played in the United Kingdom (the first to officially recognize darts as a sport - March 25, 2005 ), the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Australia, the United States and elsewhere.

Dart boards are usually made of sisal fibers and each section is lined with thin metal wire. The numbers indicating the various scoring sections of the board are normally made of wire, especially on tournament-quality boards, but may be printed directly on the board instead.

The standard dartboard is divided into twenty numbered sections, scoring from one to 20 points, by wires running from the small central circle to the outer circular wire. Circular wires within the outer wire divide each section into single, double and triple areas.

Various quite different games can be played (and still are played informally) using the standard dartboard. However, in the official game, any dart landing inside the outer wire scores as follows:

Hitting one of the large portions of each of the numbered sections, traditionally coloured black and yellow, scores precisely the points value of that section.
- Hitting the thin outer portions of these sections, coloured red and green, scores double the points value of that section.
- Hitting the thin inner portions of these sections, roughly halfway between the outer wire and the central circle and again coloured red or green, scores triple (or 3x) the points value of that section.
The central circle is divided into a green outer ring worth 25 points (known as "outer" or "outer bull") and a red inner circle (usually known as "bull", "inner bull" or "double bull"), worth 50 points. The term "bullseye" can mean either the whole central part of the board or just the inner red section.
Hitting outside the outer wire scores nothing.
Any dart that does not remain in the board after throwing (for example, a dart that hits a wire and bounces out of the board) also scores nothing. Variations on this rule exist - some judge that a dart which obviously hits a scoring section but then subsequently drops out will count if caught before it hits the floor. In professional rules, a dart's tip must be touching a scoring section for the dart to count.

The highest score possible with 3 darts is 180, obtained when all three darts land in the triple 20. In the televised game, the commentator frequently announces a score of 180 in exuberant style.

In the standard game, the dart board is hung so that the bullseye is 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) from the floor, and the oche (pronounced 'ock-ey'), or throwing line behind which the player must stand, is 7 ft 9.25 in (2.37 m) from the face of the board, though a few British pubs set it at 8 ft (2.44 m) or 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m). For casual play, it is not uncommon to find the oche somewhat further or closer than the tournament standard, either due to rounding of the specified distance (to 7.5 or 8 feet), or just due to measurement error (such as measuring from the wall, rather than using a plumb line to measure from the board face).

A relatively new type of board is the soft tip board, which is made of plastic and cast with small holes (about .08 inches, or 2mm) in the face. The soft tip darts are, in general, lighter than the steel tipped darts, and have a lower maximum allowable weight. The soft tip darts have semi-rigid tapered plastic tips that will penetrate the holes cast in the board to a depth of about .25 inches (6 mm) before lodging securely in place. The darts may be removed from the board by a gentle twist and pull. While still dangerous, soft tip darts are less likely to cause serious injury if they hit a person, and are far less likely to damage items they hit if they bounce out of the board. Since the plastic tips are prone to chip, bend and break with use, even inexpensive soft tip darts are made with replaceable tips, and replacement tips are sold in quantity.

Other than the difference in maximum allowable weights of darts, soft tip dart rules are the same as those for steel tip darts. One big advantage of the soft tip dart for the recreational player is the availability of electronic boards that will detect and score each dart hit, and track the score of each player. Many of these electronic dart boards have dozens of different dart games and variations programmed in, and will even coach a player as to where to aim his next throw.

The most important organisations:

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