Playing darts in the comfort of your own game room, or local bar, brings plenty of joy. Organizing and playing tournaments is even better. What better way to show off all those skills you’ve built up over the years? But sometimes we crave a little more.

Leaving local confines means finding better players, and the best players are found on the national and international circuits. So strap yourself in, because we’re going to look at the biggest dart tournaments in the world.

BDO World Darts Championship

This weekend the British Darts Organization begins its annual tournament, the World Darts Championship. It is the biggest darts tournament in the world, attracting attention from major broadcasters such as ESPN. With the vast publicity, plus hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, the World Darts Championship attracts players from all across the world, settling them in Surrey for the event. It’s a long-running one, covering two weekends and the week between.

PDC World Darts Championship

In 1994 a group broke off from the BDO and formed their own darts organization, the Professional Darts Corporation. To match their old rivals, they not only created a world tournament of their own, but timed it right before the BDO event. The 2012 tournament has already finished, with Adrian Lewis of England winning for the second straight year. The prize money is actually a bit bigger in the PDC event: for the third straight year it reached £1,000,000. It doesn’t get quite the media attention, but the crowds at Alexandra Palace in London still get their money’s worth.

Winmau World Masters

While the BDO might be the biggest darts tournament in the world, it is not the oldest. The Winmau World Masters has been around a little longer. It also holds a special prestige for players as well. After all, not every tournament winner is referred to as World Master. The Winmau tournament used to represent the last leg of the BDO’s tournament string, but three of them have since ceased operations. That leaves just the World Darts Championship and Winmau World Masters as their only two major tournaments.

Attending Live & In Person

It’s not exactly easy to get out to these tournaments. They both span the course of at least a week, and that’s some serious time to take off. You’ll have to scour for some cheap flights, cheap hotels and stick to inexpensive dining options if you want to do it on a budget. But even if you can only make it for a few days, getting to one of these tournaments is a great experience for any darts player, even casual ones. It’s not every day that we get the opportunity for the best in the world to test their mettle.

Traveling to worldwide dart tournaments is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

For some people, the best use of a BlackBerry smartphone with darts is to throw one into the other. While that would provide some cathartic relief, it probably isn’t the best way to treat an electronic device, frustrating as it might be. There is some good news, though. BlackBerry has released a whole new line of devices, plus a tablet, that definitely stack up. They might not be as pretty as the iPhone, but this time around the BlackBerry gets the job done. Maybe you can even use one as a supplement to your next dart game.

While there aren’t too many uses for a smartphone in a game of darts, there is one clear implementation: scoring. Sure, you have your chalkboard and have used it since you threw your first dart. Heck, on that first throw you might well have hit the chalkboard. If you’re sick of the chalk and the slate, here’s a scoring app for your BlackBerry smartphone — we recommend the BlackBerry Dakota, a/k/a the Bold 9930 or 9900 — plus one for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Win At Darts

The app title is simple enough, and the concept is too. Instead of writing your scores on the chalkboard you enter the information into the app. How does this provide an advantage over the chalkboard? Well, for one, it will make you feel like you’re getting more out of your BlackBerry. But more importantly, it can provide you with some information that you’d otherwise need to calculate in your head.

That is, Win At Darts lets you set which type of game you want to play — 101, 301, 501, 701, or 1001 — and then produces the out shots you’ll need to win. Sure, any seasoned dart vet can figure this out, but if you’re out with buddies and you’ve had a couple it might come in handy. It also provides you with stats on your game, and everyone likes to glance at how well they’re doing.

As if that weren’t enough, Win At Darts also includes a darts arcade game. No, it won’t improve your shot, but it can provide you some entertainment while you’re waiting on line. You can get Win At Darts at BlackBerry App World for $2.99.

Dart Scorer Pro

The greatest feature of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is its portability. You can fit the thing in your inside coat pocket, or even in the back pocket of your jeans. It’s that small. That means you can tote it to the bar when you and your buddies are throwing a few rounds. If you can do this you can take advantage of a powerful scoring application called Dart Scorer Pro.

As with Win At Darts, Dart Scorer Pro lets you set up different scoring games, from 301 through 901, and calculates your optimal next throw. In addition, it scores both simple and scoring Cricket games. That makes life much easier, since you just have to enter in your throw. Dart Scorer Pro takes care of tallying up points and letting you know where the game stands. As the developer advertises, it allows you to keep your head clear and focus on throwing darts. Again, this is perfect in a pub setting, where thinking might not come easy.

While Dart Scorer Pro does not include an arcade darts game, there is a different app available, called Bullseye. It’s a little limited in which game types you can play, but it kills time all the same. Best of all, both apps add up to the cost of Win At Darts. You can get Dart Scorer Pro for $1.99, and then get Bullseye for 99 cents.

Essential dart apps for your BlackBerry and PlayBook is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

Watch any major dart tournament and you will see that loud music, whether it be the players’ intro music or the TV theme music, has become an integral part of the proceedings. It seems that darts and music go together like ale and pickled onions, a veritable match made in heaven. I’ve been racking my brain, and unfortunately, I’ve failed to think of any band that’s returned the favor and actively championed the tungsten arts. This is where the brilliant minds of marketing and merchandising come to our rescue, to once and for all seamlessly unite the worlds of rock and darts. Here are some of our favorite rock ‘n’ roll dartboards, and you can guarantee none of these artists would put their name to a shoddy product.

The Beatles/Apple Records

Chances are you have heard of a band from Liverpool called The Beatles. If you haven’t, they were quite popular in the sixties, and they wrote a some good tunes. Anyway, as history would have it, this group of loveable moptops got so famous that soon they had more money than sense, and they needed an outlet to waste their newfound gazillions (and remember kids, back in the the ’60s, a gazillion was actually worth something). What better way to waste your money than forming a record label and releasing a dartboard? This dartboard is a genuine antique from those heady days of 1968, and was given out to music industry types as a Christmas present. If you are a fan of the Fab Four and come across one of these, I recommend you don’t actually play darts on it. They are probably quite expensive.

Kiss

No one can ever accuse flamboyant, greasepaint-clad rockers Kiss of not taking full advantage of merchandising. From shot glasses to tea towels, action figures to underwear, every conceivable product has displayed their mugshots at some time or another. So it’s hardly surprising to find a Kiss dartboard and cabinet. This attractive objet d’art (almost a pun!) is tastefully decorated with the visages of their classic make-up line-up: The Chico, The Harpo, The Groucho, and The Zeppo. Surely this is the perfect gift for any loyal member of the Kiss Army to match their Kiss pajamas and fluffy Gene Simmons slippers. I…wanna rock and roll all night…and play darts every day!

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello’s first album, My Aim is True, is a new wave classic full of choppy guitar and clever lyrics about being an angry nerd who can’t get laid. This is where I could insert a Stiff joke, but I’ll refrain from the schoolboy stuff. For those who don’t get the reference, Stiff was the maverick record label that Elvis was signed to, and they had a penchant for wacky promotional ploys. One of their most famous ploys was to get Costello to busk outside of CBS records, which led to his subsequent arrest. Not as well remembered, perhaps, is the My Aim is True promotional dartboard featuring Elvis Costello’s face in the center. If you have little hands of concrete, or if your aim is true, you probably wouldn’t want to play darts on this. It’s very rare and quite pricey.

Oasis

The clocks almost definitely maybe stopped musically for Oasis, sometime after The Beatles’ “white album,” but with a wormhole in the space-time continuum that allows for the inclusion of The Smiths and The Stone Roses. The plucky Gallagher lads shook the world of rock in the nineties with their timeless melodies and dialectally challenged caterwauling. They oozed so much cool, a whole genre of music was formed around them by lazy music journalists, and they even got world leaders into power. To celebrate the release of their greatest hits album, Stop The Clocks, was this promotional dartboard that matched the carnival game on the album cover. This one is obviously not for the casual fan as it doesn’t even bear the Oasis logo. Only a true fan knows its hidden meaning.

Elvis

In the world of darts, Marvyn King uses the name “The King,” but there is only one true King and that is, of course, Elvis Presley. Elvis may have left the building, but the spirit of his music lives on through myriad tacky tchotchkes, and countless impersonators. You can argue ’til you’re blue in the face about who invented rock and roll, but it was Elvis who brought it to the masses, and there is no denying the massive influence he has had on modern popular music. So what better way to complete your den-cum-shrine to The King than with this tasteful dartboard cabinet? Emblazoned with an iconic portrait of the King in his pomp this is sure to have any Elvis fan all shook up.

Led Zeppelin

Sometime in the late 1960s, rock musicians started growing tired of the hippy thing, and they just wanted to crank up the amps and start rocking out heavy. Spearheading this charge of the new hard rock was Led Zeppelin with their guitar-driven, amplified blues and boogie that was one of the pioneering sounds that would morph into heavy metal. This dartboard cabinet features “The Hermit” artwork from the inner gatefold of the Led Zeppelin IV long playing album (a long playing album is what they used to listen to in the olden days; it was like a CD but a lot bigger and it didn’t hold as many tracks). This attractive package is sure to help you up that stairway to darting heaven.

Guns N’ Roses

Formed in 1985, Guns N’ Roses have managed to record a paltry 6 albums in a 25-year span. One was not even a proper album, just some covers of old punk songs. So that leaves us with just 5 proper studio albums in 25 years. That works out to 1 album for every 5 years of their existence. Pathetic! What a bunch of bone idle, long-haired layabouts! Still, millions of fans around the world love their tuneless warbling. This dartboard set not only says Guns N’ Roses on it, it has a picture of some guns N’ some roses on it. I may not be a big G N’ R fan, but darts is a great game to play during the cold November Rain.

Seven Rockin’ Dartboards is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

It’s an old mantra you hear time and time again—practice makes perfect, and the only way you are going to improve your darts scores is getting into a regular practice routine. Establishing a regular practice routine will help you improve your muscle memory, which will result in higher and more consistent scoring.

If you are serious about improving your darts, then it’s a must to have your own dartboard set up, or at least a dartboard you can access everyday. The key is to practice daily, and while this might scare some of you off, a short daily practice of ten minutes or so will produce better results than one weekly marathon session. Committing the time to practicing is one of the biggest hurdles you have to cross, but from small acorns grow mighty oaks.

The key to practice is to develop routines that work the board. If you just throw at triple 20s all the time, you might become good at them but you won’t be any good at finishing a game. You should take practice as seriously as a match. Ensure that your practice time is going to be free form interruptions so your mind is focused solely on your darts. It is also very important to record your scores every practice session so you can see how your averages improve over time.

How you pick your routines is going to be based on the time you can commit. I try to put in at least 30 minutes a day of practice, but it’s been two weeks since my last practice session thanks to the Christmas break. Hey, I’m only human!

First thing you always need to do is loosen up. I like to go around the board, hitting every number in sequence, a couple of times to get myself warmed up. This gives me time to relax and concentrate on my stance, grip, and throwing action.

What I do next generally depends on what kind of mood I’m in. There are a lot of routines I go through, but I rarely have time to work them all in one session. As I record all my practices and put them onto a spreadsheet, I can see which ones I’ve been neglecting and in what areas I need to practice more. Here are some of my regular routines.

’01s

I play at lot of ’01 games when I’m practicing, not just to improve my game, but also because I suck at the math! What I do when playing through ’01 games is to play against an imaginary partner, and I’ve got to take the game in a set number of darts. You can set the number of darts to finish the game in to suit your skill level, but it should still be a challenge.

For 501 games, if it’s taking you about 30 darts to play through a game of 501, then set your goal at 27 darts to finish for a win. Keep pushing yourself as you achieve your targets, and soon you’ll be throwing nine dart finishes for fun. Well, we can dream! Remember to record your dart averages, and the numbers of wins and losses.

301 games obviously take a lot fewer darts to finish, so I always play double-in to start. Like the 501 game, I keep a record of my darts averages and yes, every time I can’t hit that double to start I’m putting it down as a zero. This can get very frustrating when I’m having an off day!

To mix things up, I’ll occasionally throw some 701 and 1001 games just for extra practice on the 20s.

There are numerous other ’01 variations you can use to spice up your practice. Ones I like to add into the mix are doubles-in, triples-in, and bulls-in to start.

Round the Board Variations

Round the board games contribute a lot to my practice sessions, and for good reason. They give you a chance to shoot at every number on the board. When going round the board, I will aim for singles of each number finishing with a bull, then I will go round again just going for doubles of each number, and then I’ll do a round going for the triples of each number. Each time I play through a round, I record how many darts it takes me to complete and try to beat it next time. Another way I like to play round the board is to throw three in a bed on each number. Another way to play is to “Shanghai” each number on the board. A Shanghai is when you hit the single, triple, and double of a number with three darts.

Cricket

I do like to play cricket, so it makes sense to put some cricket routines into the mix. I usually like to start of with a few rounds of quick cricket. This is just throwing for the numbers and seeing how many darts it takes to close everything. Then I will also play against my imaginary friend, giving him the benefit of the doubt so he scores three singles each round, meaning I have to hit some doubles and triples on my way to imaginary glory.

Shanghai

Shanghai is a game I rarely play, but I do like like using it for practice sessions as it involves the whole board if you do a full twenty rounds. Like when doing cricket practice, I give my opponent three singles each round so I have a score to beat, but I’m looking to win each with a Shanghai. If you find this one too easy, you can also add a rule that your Shanghais are in an order like single first, double second, and triple on the third dart.

Common and Bogey Numbers

There’s nothing wrong with just shooting at common targets like the bull and triple twenty. Just don’t overdo it or that’s all you’ll ever be able to hit. As well as giving a little extra time to these areas, also work your magic doubles, especially that magic double 16. Speaking of the pesky 16, I like to practice just trying to get a single on that S.O.B. I don’t know why, but that’s a real bogey number for me. Whenever I’m throwing for 16s in cricket ,the dartitis always seems to strike and I’ve thrown many a game from my incompetence at this target. Identify any of your weak numbers and hammer the buggers till they are conquered. Scratch that—don’t obsess on them. Think positive, and you’ll soon reach darting nirvana.

So there are some tips for some practice routines you can do. They don’t have to be a chore. If you enjoy playing darts, you should enjoy practicing.

Playing With Yourself – Dart Practice Routines is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

Darts is all about the numbers, and for most games, having a higher score than your opponent each round greatly increases your chances of winning. You should know already that the highest score on the dartboard that can be made with a single dart is the triple 20, giving you 60 points, but is this really the best place to aim on the board? Well, if you are a professional, of course that’s the best spot. But what about the rest of us who are looking for the upper hand?

Throwing 20s and hopefully hitting a few triple twenties is a great way to go about things as long as you don’t miss the target. The problem is, most of us think we are a lot better than we actually are, and if we are being honest, we actually hit a lot of 5s, 1s, and other numbers due to our inconsistency. I fancy myself as a bit of a dart player, and I can usually beat all my friends. But the truth is, I’m not that great. I can throw some wonderful darts that impress people, and quickly follow it up with darts all over the place. So is there a spot on the board you can throw that will increase your score over a game of darts?

Well, yes, it’s the bullseye! Conventional darting wisdom suggests that if you want to score more points and you are not that great, you are more likely to pick up a lot more points aiming for the bullseye than you would aiming for triple 20s. The difference is not about hitting the targets—it’s your misses that should give you a higher score. This was something I was planning to write about, along with understanding dart averages, until a friend sent me a link to The Heart of Dartness.

The Heart of Dartness is a neat web applet designed to help you determine exactly where on the board you should be aiming every single dart to maximize your dart score. The applet was dreamt up by three young Stanford boffins, Rayn J. Tibshirani, Andrew Price, and Jonathan Taylor as a way to help them take all the glory at their local tavern, and no doubt impress the ladies in the process.

How it works is, you throw up to 50 darts at the board and log the score of each dart. When you have entered all the numbers, you click the “Create heat map!” button. The applet runs some complicated mathematics (believe I tried to read the research paper), and then draws a heat map of your throws and suggests the optimal area you should aim at to maximize your score.

Well, that sounds pretty cool, so let’s give it a whirl and see what it does for me. Warning! My approach to this this applet is based more on me making stuff up as I go than any scientific reasoning.

First off, the principle behind this is that we all suck at triple 20s. So instead of throwing at the bullseye, I’m going to throw 50 darts at triple 20, and then 50 darts at the bull, and then compare the two and have a good laugh at how badly I scored. Aiming for triple 20 I scored 772 which is an average of 15.44 per dart. Throwing at the bull I scored 621, an average of 12.42 per dart. Wow! I scored 151 more points going for triple 20, and I had one bounce-out that I put down as zero. Very unexpected. I must be a darting god! That result was unexpected, but I guess you can’t account for flukes. I’m sure if I ran through this more than once, I’d get much different results.

The next step is to enter all the numbers from my throws at the bull and see if we can improve that score.

As we can see from the screenshot above, after I have entered my scores a heat map is created and a small dot it is placed on the dart board to show the best spot to aim for. In this case, the best spot to aim for me the single 7 just inside the triple ring. If I try and aim here, my maximum expected score should be 13.72. You can also mouse over the heat map and see what your expected score would be anywhere on the board. This is displayed below the heatmap, and in this case it shows that if I aimed for triple 20, I could expect to score 12.31 points.

Before I go on to see how I score, I thought I’d enter all my scores from aiming at triple 20 for no other reason than I already had the numbers. So you could say this a test using numbers a bit more randomly as they weren’t thrown at the bull.

This shows I should be aiming for the single 8 close to the bullseye. I could expect to score 12.05.

The next step now is to actually throw some darts at my my newly assigned number and see if my scores improve any.

First I’ll throw 50 darts at the single 7 just inside the triple ring as suggested by the first image:

Success! Aiming at this new target, I’ve increased my average per dart score by over 1.5 points. I’ve scored higher than my maximum expected score, and I even had two bounce-outs.

Now let’s see what happens if I readjust for my triple 20 scores:

Well, that was a disaster! I didn’t expect much as I wasn’t aiming at the correct target to get my new suggested score, although I did manage to score better than my maximum expected score. One interesting thing, though, is my score from aiming at this new target is slightly better than the score I got when I threw my first 50 darts at the bull.

I’m close to making a wishy-washy conclusion. The Heart of Dartness seems to work and has increased my scores a little, although I was expecting a huge jump in scores.

It’s all very well me standing at the dartboard and firing off a bunch of darts in the name of science while everyone else is is doing real work. What we need to do is apply this to some real games of 501 to see if I can crush the competition with my new aiming spot.

We will play four games of 501. In the first, I’ll be shooting for triple 20s; in the second I’ll shoot for bulls; the third game, I’ll aim for my suggested single 7 target; and in the last game, I’ll throw for silly single 8 target. I’ll record the scores from each round until I reach a finishing score (yeah I won’t finish, but I’ll get distracted and try and hit it):

Well, I managed to win two out of four games. Unfortunately, I didn’t win that all-important “Single 7” round. While I had greatly improved my average score under test conditions in the heat of the battle, I managed to show how bad my dart throwing can get.

Testing out The Heart of Dartness was good fun and was a great excuse to throw a bunch of darts in the office instead of doing any real work. I’m not convinced it has helped me to get any better scores, but I’ll be testing it out a bit more on my own time as the test conditions suggest I should have done better. The one thing I don’t get about it is, if I’m aiming for the bull, and my darts are landing outside the triple ring, how would it know?

I also know for a fact I throw better darts after a couple of beers (or at least that’s what I always tell myself), so these results may be a little skewed due to the lack of ale.

I would have liked to test out The Heart of Dartness with a non-dart player to see if we could improve their score. But I think my throwing was embarrassing enough throughout the test to show me I need to practice a hell of a lot more.

I’m kind of on the fence about The Heart of Dartness, but that’s because I only ran through it once and rather quickly. I think over the course of thousands of throws, you would see a marked improvement in your scores. I’m definitely going to try it out a bit more on my own time to see if I can’t win a few more games applying this data. Hopefully this post wasn’t too dry what with all those numbers. If you did take the time to study my scores, I hope at least they gave you a good laugh.

Testing out the Heart of Dartness…The horror…the horror… is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

The holidays are quickly approaching and all around the world boys and girls are hoping that Santa is going to leave them a set of Phil Taylor Phase 5 darts. Well, that’s unlikely. Kids nowadays are only interested in their Ataris and ColecoVisions, or some such nonsense. It’s not like in my day, when all we had was mud to play with, not that it mattered. I was too busy working down in the coal mine once I was 6 years old. Not like today’s kids, with their long hair and relaxed attitudes. And another thing… (Editor’s note: Stuart banged his head this morning, and has been rambling incoherently since then. We’ll make him a cup of tea and that should sort him out.)

Yes, Christmas. A time of peace and goodwill to all mankind, as well as countless trips to see family members, overeating, and binge drinking. If you are fortunate enough, you might be able to get a game of arrows in there somewhere, but chances are you will be too stuffed from another turkey dinner to even move. Don’t despair, though. There is plenty of top quality armchair darts on over Christmas that might stave off that turkey-induced coma. It’s time for the World Darts Championships—both of them.

Starting on the 18th of December, and running through to the 3rd of January, is the PDC World Darts Championship. Phil Taylor will be defending his title, and if he does, it will be the 13th time he has won this event since it started in 1994. This has quickly become the biggest event in the darting calendar with over £1,000,000 in prize money available. You can see the full schedule here.

The BDO World Darts Championship has been going since 1978, and is the granddaddy of all darting tournaments. These days, the BDO has plenty of knockers, but this event will not disappoint. The BDO World Darts Championship is on from the 2nd to the 10th of January, and it’s held at the wonderful Lakeside Country Club. Defending the men’s title will be Ted Hankey, and the women’s title will be defended by Francis Hoenselaar. You can learn more about this fantastic event here.

Merry Christmas to you all, and we’ll see you in the New Year! Enjoy your darts!

All I Want For Christmas Is The Darts is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

Sunday saw the thrilling conclusion of the 2009 Grand Slam of Darts. This tournament is one of the few occasions where we get to see some of the top BDO (British Darts Organisation) stars go head-to-head with the stars of the rival PDC (Professional Darts Corporation), which organizes the event.

The Grand Slam brings together the winners and runners-up from the major competitions from both organizations. It also offers channels for overseas players to qualify, as well as a wild card spot open to any dart player who wins the qualifying event.

One of the major competitions that qualifies for entry is the Women’s World Championship. Both Anastasia Dobromyslova and Francis Hoenselaar were representing women’s darts. Only Dobromyslova made any impact with her shocking defeat of Vincent van der Voort in the group stage. Unfortunately, both women finished last in their groups, failing to make the playoffs. The fact that they were featured in a major televised tournament will surely help raise the profile of women in the sport of darts.

There were plenty of upsets in the tournament, but for one player in particular, the Grand Slam proved to be the stuff that dreams are made of. Scott Waites, a semi-professional darter who is a joiner by trade, made it all the way to the final to face the incomparable Phil Taylor. On his way to the final, he caused one of the biggest upsets in the group stage by beating the current BDO World Professional Darts Champion, Ted Hankey, who in true sore loser fashion went on to complain about the rowdiness of the crowd. With only one loss in the group stage, Waites then went on to the knock-out stages defeating Gary Anderson in the second round, followed by Simon Whitlock in the quarter finals, and then on to face Terry Jenkins in the semi-final.

Jenkins has been in great form this year, and he was one of my picks for the final. However, after the opening session, it was four legs to one in favor of Waites. Poor finishing from Jenkins meant he was behind for most of the semi-final, but eventually manged to claw himself back into the game to tie the game at eleven legs a piece. Jenkins was throwing well, but his finishing let him down once again and Waites took the next six legs to end the best of thirty-one and book his place in the final.

Facing Phil Taylor in a final must be a daunting prospect, even for the most seasoned professional, but Scott Waites seemed very relaxed at the final. The grin that was stretching from ear to ear was a testament to how happy he was to have made it that far. As you might expect, Taylor put on a masterclass of darting skill including a fantastic 170 finish in one round. Taylor’s brilliance totally outclassed Waites, and the one-sided affair ended 16-2 in Taylor’s favor. Despite his loss, Waites’s confidence seemed high for most of the final, and you could see how much he was enjoying himself with both players exchanging some friendly banter with each other and the crowd.

The 2009 Grand Slam of Darts was a fantastic tournament with lots of drama and great fun to watch. We also learned, through Twitter, that the magnificent Stephen Fry is a big darts fan. Now let’s hope I never have to hear “Chelsea Dagger” by The Fratellis ever again.

2009 Grand Slam of Darts – 2 Hotty To Handle is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

I work in a very unconventional office. It has a lounge that includes a sofa, LCD TV with high def cable, Xbox 360, Guitar Hero, and a beer fridge. You might be left wondering how any work gets done around here. These are nothing but distractions, and whilst they are fun, they did lose their novelty a long time ago. Well, apart from the beer fridge. I doubt that will ever become passé. So in a effort to boost office morale and help reduce productivity, I thought I’d introduce a bristle dart board into the mix.

I had an old Nodor/Swiftflyte Supabull I had given to my dad, and as he wasn’t using it anymore. I thought it would be perfect for the office. It’s amazing how quickly you can clean a couple years’ worth of crud off a dart board face with a decent shop vac. Anyway, I knew before I put up the dart board in the office I would have to get hold of a dart backboard before I upset the landlords, or the boss, for that matter.

Channeling my inner MacGyver, I figured I could fashion something reasonable from junk I had lying around that wouldn’t look too ugly, and wouldn’t fall apart after a week. If you’re hoping for detailed instructions and accurate measurements, prepare to be disappointed. This is a very simple project that just requires a little bit of ingenuity. Here’s how I put together my own backboard:

Stuff you might need:

• Scraps of some kind of composite wood board
• Hanging bracket
• Fabric (to make it look pretty

Tools you might use:

• Saw
• Wood Glue
• Clamps
• Dremel Rotary Tool
• Cordless Driver
• Staple Gun
• Screws

First, I needed some material to make the board out of. Luckily, earlier this year we put in new hardwood floors, and I had a few scrap sheets of OSB (oriented strand board) lying around. The good thing about OSB is that it it’s nice and light, unlike the plywood I was considering using. I found a cut piece that measured about 35” x 40”. This looked about right. I laid it down on the floor, placed the dart board on top, gave it a quick eyeball, and decided this would be the perfect size.

Unfortunately, OSB is quite thin, and while I don’t think a dart would pass through it and damage the drywall behind, I decided to play it safe and double up, so I glued two pieces of board together. The gods must have been shining on me. I found another piece that was only an eighth of an inch off in height, and I just had to cut off one side to straighten up the edge. When I had the the second piece cut to size, I used some wood glue to stick the two boards together. Then I put some weight on it, clamped down the edges, and left it overnight.

After a good night’s sleep, I needed come up with something to hang the dart board on the backboard. A dart board mounting kit makes life easier here. They can be purchased separately, and one is usually supplied with a new dart board. For me, this was the trickiest part of the exercise. My dart board was all ready for mounting, it just needed the bracket that mounts to the wall. As I had no luck finding that, it was time break out the Dremel and grind something into existence from some form of metal bracket I found in my junk. As you can see from the picture below, it wasn’t the most scientific process, and quite a bit of bending was necessary to ensure the board fit tight against the backboard.

Once I had the mounting bracket jury-rigged, I tested it, and removed it from the backboard. It was time to take everything indoors and make it it look pretty. I had already procured a piece of green felt from the office that was once used to create a green screen for a video project. If I had any sense, I would have checked to make sure it was large enough to cover the backboard I was making. In true MacGyver fashion, of course it was big enough. The felt was laid out on the floor, and the backboard laid on top. Then, using a staple gun, I fastened one edge to the back of the board. Before doing the other edge you want to make sure the fabric is pulled nice and tight across the backboard. Having an assistant for this part really speeds things up.

Once the material was nice and tight on the backboard, we had our almost-finished product.

The only things left to do were mount it on the wall, reattach the mounting bracket, hang the dart board, and start playing some darts. When attaching the backboard to the wall, I purposely placed it so the dart board would not sit right in the middle of the backboard. Instead, I left it so that the area below the dart board had more protection than the the area above the top. This is because, in my opinion, low misses are a lot more common than high misses. Here’s the finished project, looking resplendent in the office.

With a little time and not much effort, this easy project can save you a lot of redecorating efforts in the long run. This project was made entirely out of scrap and found materials, so it’s probably good for the environment or something. If being green is not your thing, then I hope I’ve inspired you to be a cheapskate. If it all smacks of effort, though, feel free to go out and buy one. Be kind to yourselves, and one another.

Ooooops Addendum:

OK, I admit it! I made it all sound like smooth sailing! I did make this by flying by the seat of my pants for the most part, and I was very lucky not to make any major screw-ups. However, when I was mounting the backboard to the wall, I decided to put a screw through the board without drilling a hole first. As I was rushing, the fine threads of the screw started to eat the felt, and in the blink of an eye, there was a big rip in the fabric. I hid this rip behind some painter’s tape and, as you can see below, it’s totally seamless.

How to Make a Dart Backboard…MacGyver Style is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

All you need to play darts is a dartboard, a wall to hang it on, and a set of darts. It doesn’t take much equipment to get started, and for under $100, you can pick up some top quality gear. This is all well and good, but if you want to get the most out of the game, you are going to have to shell out some extra bucks.

There is so much darting paraphernalia out there, you can get overwhelmed with the choices. So apart from the basic equipment, what else do you really need for a perfect home setup? Without further ado, here are my must-have items to get the best out of your home darts.

Let There be Light

I cannot stress enough how important good dartboard lighting is. There is nothing more distracting than shadows on the board cast by other darts. Good lighting makes it easier to see what you are aiming at, and will help improve your game. Plus, there is nothing worse than having to walk to the board to check where your dart landed after every shot.

One of the best ways to light your dartboard is with a track light with two adjustable spots. Mount the track light about four feet away from the board, with one spot shining in from the right, and the other coming in from the left. Adjust the spotlight heads to find the right angles that cover the board with light. This flood of light on the dartboard coming from different directions will help cancel out most of the worst shadows. If the room it already well lit, the ambient light along with the spots will reduce the number of shadows even further. Adding a third center spot will further improve visibility.

For an even better solution, use a fluorescent lamp in conjunction with the spotlights. Mount the fluorescent fixture directly above the dartboard. This will give a diffused light across the face of the board, and will help eliminate virtually all shadows.

Always Use Protection

If you have your dartboard out in the garage, this might be a moot point. But if you are bringing your dartboard indoors, you need to protect the wall where the board will be mounted.

The most attractive way to protect your wall is with a dartboard cabinet. The beauty of these is they not only conceal your dartboard, but usually have built-in chalkboards for score keeping, and a place to store your darts. Dartboard cabinets can add a finishing touch to your game room as they are available in all manner of finishes, from traditional pub signs to your favorite sports teams, and everything in between. When the cabinet is open, it offers great protection to the left and right of the dartboard, but it doesn’t offer as much protection for errant shots above or below the board.

One of the cheapest ways to protect your walls from stray missiles is with a simple dart backboard. These are available in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and tend to cover a greater area than a cabinet would. If you are the handy type, making your own with some plywood and a roll of felt shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.

If you want to go for the matchplay look, a surround is a great option. This is a ring of dense foam that slips over your board and gives you about four or five inches of added protection around the board. It adds a more authentic matchplay feel to your darts setup, but it protects a relatively small area, so if you are just starting out, it would be better to avoid this.

Counting Backwards

Writing this stuff down on paper just doesn’t cut it. You need a proper dart scoreboard to mark down your current scores. Having the scoreboard mounted in plain view near the dartboard makes it easier for every player to change their mind after each bad throw. Chalkboards are the most common type of scoreboard, but you can also use a dry erase board. If you play a lot of cricket, look for a board with cricket numbers already marked on it. There are thousands of games you can play with darts, and very few of them require no scoring, so you need a scoreboard.

Floor Your Opponent

One thing well worth investing in is a heavy duty vinyl dart mat. Dart bounce-outs will happen, and a good quality dart mat will help protect your carpets or hardwood floors from these errant darts. All dart mats come marked with throw lines so you don’t have to mark one on your floors, and they can be rolled up and hidden away when not in use.

So there are what I consider the essential items you need for a good home dartboard setup. Not only will you get more out of your dart playing with these, they can also save you money on home renovations.

Stay sharp!

Essentials for Home Dartboard Setup is a post from: Dartboard Reviews

Here’s a great party game you can play when you have a large number of people wanting to throw some darts. I have always called the game Killer, but after checking out the rules for other dart games, I’ve found there are a few different games that go by that name. Not one I’ve found is played the same as this version, and I have been unable to find an alternate name for it.

My version of Killer is for any number of players, the more the merrier! You can play with two players, but the game will get dull quickly. Alcohol is recommended but not essential, and good natured ribbing is strongly encouraged.

First off, you will have to decide the throwing order of all the players. This can be done however you see fit. Draw names from a hat, diddle for the middle, oldest to youngest, whatever—they are all good. Once you have the order sorted, write the names on a scoreboard, and leave room to write marks under each name.

The idea of the game is to beat the last person’s score. Each player has three lives, and if you fail to beat the previous score, you lose a life.

The first person to throw has it easy. They throw their three darts at the board, and add up the total of the darts. Then it is up to the next player to beat that score. If they beat the score, it moves on to the next player, and they try to beat the new score. The play goes round the players, and the score keeps going up until a player is unable to beat the last person’s score. If you tie the last person’s score, you have not beaten it.

When a player is unable to beat a score, they lose a life. At this point, the next player in line gets a free throw and sets the new score to beat. Then play continues as before, with each player trying to beat the previous player’s score.

Once you have lost all three lives, you are out of the game. Play continues until one player is left with any number of lives remaining.

This is a great, fast-moving game to play with a lot of people. As the score resets quite often, less experienced players have a good chance of surviving in this game, and better players can fall early depending on the order of play.

To make the game even more competitive, we often put in a dollar or two each, and the winner takes it all. It’s not a lot of money, but usually can get you a pint or two.

That is the game I know as Killer, and it’s the best party dart game I know. A number of games share the name Killer, so if you have played this game or something very similar, I’d love to find out what you call this game.

Killer – or at least that’s what I call it is a post from: Dartboard Reviews