DART

Darts, indoor target game played by throwing feathered darts at a circular board with
numbered spaces. The game became popular in English inns and taverns in the 19th
century and increasingly so in the 20th.
The board, commonly made of sisal (known familiarly as “bristle”) but sometimes made
of cork or elmwood, is divided into 20 sectors valued at points from 1 to 20. Six rings
determine the scoring: an inner bull’s-eye worth 50 points, an outer bull’s-eye worth 25
points, a wide single-scoring ring, a narrow triple-scoring ring, another wide single-scoring
ring, and, outermost, a narrow double-scoring ring. Throwing is free-style. The recognized
standard length is 7 feet 9.25 inches (2.37 metres), though traditional distances vary up to 9
feet. The centre of the board is posted 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 metres) above the floor. (These
and other rules may vary slightly in countries outside the British Isles.)
A form of darts was a training game for English archers in the Middle Ages.
The game was popular with Tudor monarchs from Henry VIII. In its modern
form in Britain, the game is ordinarily played in the public house, or pub
(tavern), or in a club, rather than in the home. Of an estimated 5 million
players in the British Isles, about 25,000 are represented by the British Darts
Organisation (BDO; founded 1973). The BDO is the founder member of
the World Darts Federation (WDF), which represents more than 500,000
darts players in 50 countries. The major championships are the Winmau
World Masters, the WDF World Cup, and the Embassy World Professional
Darts Championship.
Beginning in the 1980s, coin-operated electronic darts machines, which
feature a perforated plastic board and darts made entirely from plastic,
gained widespread popularity in the United States. The American Darts
Organization represents around 50,000 players.