Darts
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Darts is a game in which darts are thrown at a target hung on a wall. It is commonly played in pubs in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, the United States and elsewhere.
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Dart Boards
Dart boards are usually made of sisal fibers and each section is lined with thin metal wire. The numbers are normally made of wire. Regional variations on the standard board still exist in some parts of Staffordshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. In particular, the Yorkshire board is identical to the standard board save that it has no treble ring and has a single, inner bull. The dartboard itself may have its origins in the cross section of a tree, although some historical records suggest that the first standard dartboards were the bottoms of wine casks; this game was called "butts".
Height and Distance
The center of the dartboard is hung 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) from the floor, and the oche, or throwing line at which the player's foot is placed, is 2.37 m (7 ft 9.25 in) 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).
Scoring
Bullseye.jpg
Points are awarded for hitting the various sections.
- Hitting a white or black section gives points equal to the number aligned to that section (1 to 20).
- The outer ring in the centre of the board is worth 25 points.
- The inner ring (also known as "The Bull" or "Bullseye") is worth 50 points.
- Hitting outside the layer of doubles merits no points.
- If the dart does not remain in the dartboard (i.e. it bounces or falls out) then no points are scored.
The highest score possible from 3 darts is 180, which is obtained when all three darts land in the treble 20. In the televised game, the commentator frequently anounces a score of 180 in exuberant style.
Playing Darts
Darts is usually contested between two players usually playing a certain amount of legs, in which they have to reduce their score from 501 (or 301) to zero. The players take turns to throw three darts at a time. The last dart in the leg must hit either a double or the bullseye and must reduce the score to exactly zero. Sometimes matches are decided by who wins the most sets, each containing an odd number of legs.
Professional Organisations
Of the two professional organisations, the British Darts Organisation (BDO), founded 1973), is the oldest. Its tournaments are often shown on the BBC in the UK, and on SBS6 in the Netherlands. The BDO is a member of the World Darts Federation (WDF) (founded 1976), alongside with organisations in some 60 other countries worldwide. the BDO organises all British darts players, with the exception of a small group of professionals.
In the 1994 a breakaway organisation was formed, influenced by Sky Television, currently known as the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) - in the Netherlands often televised by RTL5.
While the PDC tournaments often have a higher prize money, critics would say they are less prestigious than those organised by its traditional counterpart, the BDO.
Profesional Competitions
The WDF World Cup (for national teams) has been played bi-annually since 1977.
The main traditional event is the World Professional Darts Championship.
Amateur Competition
TournamentUSA.com schedules daily tournaments (http://www.tournamentusa.com)
Betting
On premises where alcohol is consumed, English law has long permitted betting only on games of skill, as opposed to chance, and then only for small stakes. An apocryphal tale relates that in 1908, Jim Garside, the landlord of the Adelphi Inn, Leeds, England was called before the local magistrates to answer the charge that he had allowed betting on a game of chance, darts, on his premises. Garside asked for the assistance of local champion William "Bigfoot" Anakin who attended as a witness and demonstrated that he could hit any number on the board nominated by the court. Garside was discharged as the magistrates found darts, indeed, to be a game of skill.
See also
- Cricket - An alternative game using the standard dart board.
- Glossary of Darts
- Nine dart finish
- Bullseye - A British game show based around darts.
External links
- Professional Darts Corporation (http://www.planetdarts.co.uk)
- World Darts Federation (http://www.dartswdf.com)
- British Darts Organisation (http://www.bdodarts.com)
- American Darts Organization (http://www.adodarts.com)
- Darts Federation of Australia (http://www.dfadarts.org)
- Dutch Darts Federation (http://www.ndfdarts.nl)
- Swedish Darts Organisation (http://www.dart.se)
- Danish Darts Union (http://www.dart-ddu.dk)
- Patrick Chaplin - darts historian (http://www.patrickchaplin.com/)
- Online history of traditional games - lists pubs in England where tradiation variants of dart boards are preserved (http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Darts.htm)de:Dart