History of Darts

From English pubs to a global sport

Darts may seem like an exceptionally simple game: all you need is a dartboard, three darts and a little free space. Behind this uncomplicated idea, however, lies a long history shaped by archery traditions, English pub culture, industrial development, the standardisation of rules and television.

Where did darts actually come from?

The exact birth of darts cannot be identified with a single date or attributed to one person. The most likely theory links its beginnings with archery and military games of skill. Early boards resembled smaller archery targets with concentric circles, while darts themselves were long referred to in English as “arrows”. Popular stories describe soldiers throwing shortened arrows, arrowheads or crossbow bolts at pieces of wood during breaks between battles. No documents have survived, however, that would allow any one of these stories to be accepted as an exact account of how the modern game began.

It is safer to assume that darts developed gradually from various games involving the throwing of small projectiles at a target. Cross-sections of tree trunks made particularly suitable targets. The natural growth rings formed circles that could be used as scoring zones, while radial cracks marked out separate sectors. Over time, such improvised targets began to be made specifically for the game.

It is sometimes claimed that the first dartboards were the ends of beer or wine barrels. This is a vivid story that suits the pub character of darts, but there is no strong evidence that the history of the sport actually began with barrels. What is known is that even at the beginning of the twentieth century dartboards were often produced locally. Carpenters and craftsmen made them for nearby pubs, so individual towns and regions used their own sizes, divisions and scoring systems.

Who invented the numbering of the dartboard?

One of the greatest mysteries in the history of darts is the identity of the person who created the sequence of numbers used on the modern board. The name most often mentioned is Brian Gamlin from Bury in Lancashire, who is said to have devised the numbering system in the late nineteenth century. The problem is that no reliable documents confirming his authorship have been found. An alternative theory points to Thomas Buckle, a wireworker from Leeds, who may have created a similar layout in the early twentieth century. For this reason, the invention should be attributed to any one particular person only with caution.

The arrangement of the numbers is nevertheless exceptionally clever. High values are placed next to low ones: 20 lies between 1 and 5, 19 between 3 and 7, and 18 between 1 and 4. A player aiming at a high score but throwing inaccurately may therefore earn very few points. The board layout reduces the role of chance and rewards repeatable precision.

Regional versions of the dartboard have also survived to the present day. The Manchester Log-End is smaller than a standard board and has exceptionally narrow scoring areas. The Yorkshire board has no treble ring, while London Fives is divided into twelve main segments. This shows that the modern “clock” layout was not the only way to play, but rather the version that ultimately became the most popular.

The court case that helped legalise darts

In 1908, the owner of the Adelphi Inn in Leeds, James “Jim” Garside, appeared in court accused of allowing a game of chance to be played on his premises. The distinction was legally important because regulations governing establishments that sold alcohol treated games based on chance differently from games requiring skill.

A local player, William “Bigfoot” Annakin, was associated with Garside. According to surviving accounts, his performance was intended to convince the magistrates that the result in darts depended primarily on the player’s accuracy. The details of the demonstration are described differently in later stories, so not every colourful version should be taken literally. The trial nevertheless became a symbolic moment: darts was recognised as a test of skill rather than an ordinary game of luck.

This did not yet create a single set of rules. Different pubs used house rules, different boards and different throwing distances. In one place a player might stand about six feet from the target, while elsewhere the distance could be as much as nine feet. Only the growth of leagues and competitions covering larger areas forced playing conditions to become standardised.

From pub entertainment to an organised sport

After the First World War, leagues connected with breweries and pubs began to develop. Teams represented specific establishments, and matches became part of local social life. During the 1920s, demand grew for a common set of rules. In 1925 the National Darts Association was established and began to organise the rules, dimensions and structure of competitions. Decisions made during this period became the foundation of later regulations.

The championships sponsored by the newspaper “News of the World” played an enormous role. The first edition of the individual competition in the 1927/1928 season covered the London area and attracted more than a thousand entrants. Shortly before the Second World War, the number of entries was already counted in the hundreds of thousands. Darts ceased to be merely the entertainment of a few neighbouring pubs and became a mass element of British leisure culture.

During the Second World War, darts served as a simple and easily accessible form of entertainment that helped maintain morale. It was played in military units, officers’ clubs and prisoner-of-war camps. Soldiers from various countries, including the United States, Australia and New Zealand, encountered the game. After the war, some of them took it back to their own countries, helping its international development.

How did dartboards and darts change?

The first wooden boards required regular maintenance. They were sometimes soaked so that the wood would not dry out too quickly, and their surfaces wore unevenly. An important step was the development of a board made from tightly compressed sisal fibres. The fibres separate when struck by the point and partly return to position once the dart is removed. As a result, a modern board can withstand far more throws than a traditional wooden target.

The term “bristle board” can be misleading because the board is not made from animal bristles. It is produced from bundles of natural fibres, usually sisal, compressed and cut to form an even surface. The segments are separated by thin wire, and modern designs use increasingly narrow metal components, reducing the risk of bounce-outs.

The darts themselves also changed. In the first half of the twentieth century, thick brass barrels, cane shafts and paper flights were common. Later, plastics and tungsten became widespread. Tungsten is much denser than brass, so a dart of similar weight can have a narrower barrel. This makes it easier to group three darts close together, especially in the narrow treble-20 segment.

A modern dart usually consists of a point, a barrel, a shaft and a flight. Its weight, length, shape, centre of gravity and grip pattern are selected individually. Some players choose straight, evenly balanced barrels, while others prefer designs that are wider at the front or rear. There is no single set that is ideal for every player.

Television and the birth of professional darts

The first known television broadcast involving darts took place before the Second World War. Regular television coverage, however, arrived much later. Regional broadcasts appeared during the 1960s, and the real breakthrough came in the following decade, when technological progress made it possible to show the player and a close-up of the board at the same time.

The British Darts Organisation was founded in 1973, and three years later representatives of more than a dozen countries created the World Darts Federation. Darts gained more structured tournament systems, national teams and international competitions. Players such as Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Jocky Wilson and Leighton Rees became recognisable personalities, while matches attracted audiences of several million viewers.

At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the television presence of darts declined. Leading players concluded that the sport needed new tournaments, greater promotion and stable financing. In 1992 the World Darts Council was established and was later renamed the Professional Darts Corporation. The conflict led to professional darts being divided into two main organisations.

Competitions developed by the PDC, supported by satellite television, gradually transformed darts into a spectacle staged in large arenas. Elaborate production, musical walk-ons, a broad calendar and high prize money appeared. Despite professionalisation, the sport retained its distinctive closeness to the audience and the atmosphere inherited from English pubs.

Official dartboard dimensions and throwing distance

In standard steel-tip darts, the centre of the bull must be exactly 1.73 metres above floor level. The distance from the front surface of the board to the throwing line, known as the oche, is 2.37 metres. It is very important that the measurement is taken from the face of the board rather than from the wall, because the board and its mounting bracket project several centimetres in front of the wall.

The setup can also be checked by measuring the diagonal distance from the centre of the bull to the throwing line. It should be approximately 2.93 metres. A regulation dartboard is about 45.1 centimetres in diameter and must be hung with the black 20 segment exactly at the top. The floor between the board and the throwing line should be level, stable and free of obstacles.

In soft-tip play, using electronic boards designed for plastic points, a distance of eight feet, or approximately 2.44 metres, is often used. Rules may differ between machine manufacturers and league organisers, so the relevant regulations should always be checked before a competition.

For some wheelchair competitions, a reduced height of 1.37 metres from the floor to the centre of the bull is used while the standard oche length is retained. This value was chosen to reproduce the throwing geometry of a standing player as closely as possible.

Key dimensions – steel-tip

Facts and lesser-known rules

The highest-scoring single section of the board is not the bull. The inner bull is worth 50 points, while treble 20 is worth 60. The maximum score in one visit of three darts is therefore 180 points. The bull is treated as double 25, however, so it can be used to finish a leg played under double-out rules.

A perfect leg of 501 can be completed in nine darts. A player may begin with two visits of 180 and then finish the remaining 141, for example, with T20, T19 and D12. Nine throws are the mathematical minimum when the standard requirement to finish on a double is applied.

A dart that bounces off the board or falls out before the score is recorded earns no points and may not be thrown again. If a player merely drops a dart before beginning a clear throwing action, however, it may be picked up and used. The score depends on where the point enters the surface of the board, not on the position of the dart’s barrel.

Professional rules specify the maximum length and weight of darts, although typical sets are far lighter than the permitted limit. The most common steel-tip darts weigh approximately 20–26 grams. Soft-tip darts are usually lighter because an excessively heavy dart could damage the plastic segments of an electronic machine.

The history of the word “oche”, meaning the throwing line, is also interesting. The spelling “hockey” was once used, while the present form became widespread only during the twentieth century. A popular legend connects the name with a particular brewery and the length of beer crates placed next to one another, but the story has never been reliably confirmed.

A dartboard should be rotated regularly. The metal number ring is removed and the board is turned so that the heavily used 20 segment moves to a different position. This spreads wear evenly and keeps the board in good condition for much longer. A modern sisal board should not be soaked, however, because moisture may deform it and weaken the bonding of the fibres.

Darts today

Modern darts has retained many features established almost a hundred years ago: the clock-style board, three darts per visit, the oche and a scoring system based on precisely subtracting points. At the same time, it has travelled from a local pub pastime to a sport played in major arenas and broadcast around the world.

Its strength lies in an unusual combination of accessibility and difficulty. Almost anyone can make a first throw, and the basic rules can be explained in a few minutes. Regularly hitting narrow doubles and trebles, however, requires thousands of repetitions, stable technique, concentration, mental resilience and fast arithmetic.

Darts can be practised at home in a small space, yet it can also support extensive leagues and professional tournaments. The development of electronic scorers, applications, cameras and online play has allowed competitors to face one another remotely. The history of the sport shows that a major discipline does not always begin in a stadium. In the case of darts, small pubs, local craftsmen, brewery leagues, newspapers, equipment manufacturers and television were all crucial. From the simple act of throwing at a wooden target emerged a sport with exact dimensions, extensive regulations and its own world championships, while still preserving the atmosphere of direct competition.