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Wednesday 10 September 2014

Darts

Henry VIII was a great darts player, (his darts were larger than our 21 gram ones). Erasmus reckoned he was the best darts thrower he had ever seen.

Whilst sailing across the ocean on their ship The Mayflower, the Pilgrim Fathers occupied themselves by playing darts.

The modern game of darts is credited to a Lancashire carpenter Brian Gamlin (1852-1903) who devised the present- day board and scoring system.

In 1908 William "Bigfoot" Anakin, a local champion, was taken along by a publican to court to help demonstrate that darts was not gambling, it was a game of skill. Bigfoot showed that whatever number the court mentioned, he could hit on the board. The Judge agreed darts was a game of skill.

1.010 players entered UK's first Individual Darts Championships, organised by the National Darts Association in 1927-28. By 1938, the field had grown to 280,000.

Dartboards are made out of horse hairs.

There are several different dartboards in use, each with slight local variations. The London board is the most common with 20 segments, while, for example, the East End board has only 12.

The average speed with which a dart hits a dartboard in competition play is 40 mph.

The United States government banned the sale of metal-tipped lawn darts in 1987 after one penetrated the skull of a seven-year old girl, killing her.

Source Daily Mail

1 comment:

  1. Great article! Thanks for sharing I added some thoughts on Best darts sometime ago

    ReplyDelete