Dart History

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DARTS. One of England's oldest sports, the game called darts is played by throwing darts at a circular, numbered board. The game is most popular in English pubs, or public houses, and the similar North American neighborhood taverns as a friendly competition between individuals or teams. The dart board is a circle that is 18 inches (45.72 centimeters) in diameter. It is mounted on a wall so that its center is about 5 feet 8 inches (172.72 centimeters) above the floor. The board is normally made of cork, bristle, elm, or some other material that the darts can easily stick into. The board is divided like a sliced cake or pie into 20 sectors. The sectors are separated by thin wires or other dividers. Each sector is marked with a point value ranging from 1 to 20, but the numbers are not in consecutive order. A narrow outer ring, which runs through all sectors, doubles the value of the sector for all darts thrown into it. Closer to the center is another narrow ring. This one triples the value of darts in it. In the center of the board are an inner bull's-eye, with a value of 50 points, and a ring surrounding it, also called a bull's-eye, worth 25 points. The darts themselves are about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long. They are weighted and are feathered much like an arrow at one end and have a needlelike point at the other. Each player takes turns throwing three darts from a distance of 8 feet, in the United States, or 7 feet 9.25 inches, in Canada and Great Britain (2.37 meters). In the standard game, the scoring proceeds backward from 301 to zero. Each player must get a dart in the narrow outer ring to begin scoring. This and all subsequent scores are subtracted from 301. To win, a player must reach exactly zero with a final shot in the narrow outer ring again. If, for instance, only 20 points are needed to reach zero, the player would have to aim for and hit the 10 sector in the double ring. If the throw reduces the score to only one point or takes the total below zero, the score reverts to the total of the previous turn. In some places different kinds of dart boards are used. For example, certain Yorkshire and Irish boards have a single bull (bull is short for bull's-eye) and no triple rings. Outside of tournament play, the rules of the game, too, may vary. The game of darts may go back as far as the 12th century. It began as butts, an indoor form of archery, with the butts, or rounded ends, of barrels as targets. It had become a tournament pastime by the 16th century. The Pilgrim Fathers who came to North America aboard the Mayflower in 1620 played darts on the journey. In Britain today there are about 7,000 dart clubs in the National Darts Association. Other groups that oversee dart-playing contests are the British Darts Organization and the Scottish Darts Association. In addition to a million registered players, there are more than 5 million players who are not affiliated with clubs.

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