Rules of the Game: Darts

DARTS is another game with a long history. The game is thought to have been invented by soldiers throwing arrows at the bottom of tree trunks or wooden casks. Modern dart boards are most commonly made of boar bristles or sisal fibers (or, in the case of Velcro dart games, felt). Playing darts takes some practice, and some math skills, but mostly it’s just fun to throw something across the room. Make sure you give annoying siblings and small animals a wide berth.

Setting up the board

A regulation board has a diameter of 18 inches and is divided by thin metal wire into 22 sections. Make sure to mount your dart board so that the center of the double bull (the bull’s-eye) is 5 feet 8 inches from the floor. Mark the toeline, called the oche (pronounced to rhyme with “hockey”), 7 feet, 9¼ inches from the face of the board.

Basic rules

To determine shooting order, each player shoots for the bull’s-eye. The one who comes closest gets to go first. Each turn consists of three darts, which must be thrown from behind the oche. For a throw to count, the point of the dart must touch the board. If a dart bounces off the board or misses it completely, it does not get a score (and also can’t be rethrown).

Scoring

The dart board is divided into wedges, with point values marked along the outer edge of the circle. Two rings overlap the playing area; landing outside these rings scores a player face-value points for that area of the board. Landing between the first inner ring and the second inner ring scores a player double the points for that section. Landing between the second inner ring and the bull’s-eye earns triple points. Hitting outside the outer wire scores nothing.

How to throw

First, aim. Look at the target you want to hit. Lift your arm up, bent at the elbow so that the sharp end of the dart faces the dartboard. The dart should be tipped slightly up. Check your aim and line up the dart with your sight line. Move the hand holding the dart back toward your body, then pitch the dart forward, releasing the dart and making sure to follow through with your arm. The optimal followthrough will end with your hand pointing at the target (not having your hand fall to your side). When throwing, try not to move your body—the throwing action should come from your shoulder.

PLAYING THE GAME: THE 301

The object of this game, which is most commonly played by two people, is to start with a score of 301 and count down to exactly zero. Each player has a three-throw turn, and the point value of their hits is subtracted from 301. A player can only start subtracting once they “double”—that is, hit one of the doubles on the board. Once that is accomplished, the scores will begin to count. If the total score of the three throws exceeds the remaining score for that player, the score returns to what it was at the start of the turn. A double must be hit to end the game.

PLAYING THE GAME: ROUND THE CLOCK

In this game, players take turns trying to hit each number, from 1 to 20. Each player has a threethrow turn; players advance to the next number on the board by hitting each number in order. The first person to get to 20 wins.

PLAYING THE GAME: CRICKET

This strategy game is typically played with two players, or two teams of two players each. To win at Cricket, a player must “close” the numbers 15 to 20 and the bull’s-eye before any other player, and must also have the highest point count. “Closing” a number means hitting it three times in one or more turns (hitting a single closes a number in three throws; hitting a double and then a single closes a number in two throws; and hitting a triple closes a number in a single throw). You don’t have to close numbers in any particular order—but you do want to close them before the other players.

To keep track of the score, you’ll need a scoreboard (a blackboard on the wall or a pen and pad of paper will work). Write out the numbers vertically for each player, from 20 down to 15, then “B” for bull’s-eye. Each player’s turn consists of three throws, and only darts that land in the numbers 15-20 or in the bull’s-eye count. (You don’t get points for hitting numbers 1-14.) Points start to accumulate once a number is closed, and are tallied as follows: the center of the bull’s-eye is worth 50 points and the outer ring of the bull’s-eye gets 25; numbers 15-20 are worth their face value, but landing in the doubles ring doubles the number’s value, and landing in the triple ring (the inner ring between the doubles ring and the bull’s-eye) triples it.

When a player hits a number once, you put a slash (/) by the number. When that number is hit a second time by a player, you turn the slash into an X. When that number is “closed,” or hit a third time, you draw a circle around the X. Once a number has been closed, if any player hits it, the points for that number go to the player who originally closed it. Once a number has been closed by all the players, no points are awarded for that number for the rest of the game. Total up the points after one player closes all her numbers plus the bull’s-eye, and the person or team with the highest number of points is the winner.