The Cavalier Dart Board with a Wood Cabinet

Again, like the Arcade Games and Pool Tables, for this week's Fun Friday Blog Post we touch upon one of my favorite activities commonly found in bars and basement game rooms alike: Darts. If you are not familiar with darts by now then just back out of this page, turn off your computer, sell your home and move to another country. Everyone on planet Earth, or at least in America and Europe, should be familiar with this fun game that utilizes small sharp arrows thrown at a circular target with numbered sections for scoring... everybody has heard of Dart Boards!

I'll give you some background if you've never heard of this fun game. Typically the dart board is fixed to a wall, and typically there's nothing behind that wall to ensure safety. While the history of "darts" shows there have been many versions of this popular game, the current "darts" is a standard game involving specific rules and board layouts. People are uber-competitive when it comes to this game; just visit your local bar or pub and you will probably see a few heated matches before you finish your drink. And for those "dart sharks" that have mastered the local drinking hole competition, there's a professional circuit for you to test your skills against the best.

Let's talk a little bit about the history of this cool game. Many believe the dartboard originated in Europe, when the cross-section of a tree was used for target practice by soldiers. According to online sources the ancient name for a dartboard is "butt", a French word meaning target. But really target practice has been used by many cultures in many different ages over many different years, so good luck pinpointing when and where that tradition originated.

The current dartboards we are familiar with today were developed in England, and originated from several versions of "log end" games. A few examples include the London Fives Board, the Yorkshire Log End Board and the Mealy Manchester Log End Board. These early boards were smaller than contemporary dartboards, some only 25 centimeters across. The London Fives board was an interesting variation of the dartboard, with 12 equal segments numbered 20, 5, 15, 10, 20, 5, 15, 10, 20, 5, 15 and 10. Most historians do agree that "darts the game" was developed by soldiers throwing short arrows at the bottom of the trunks of trees, with the cracks as the first "sections". Regardless of who developed the game, by the mid-1800s woodworkers across Europe were supplementing their bar tabs by creating dart boards for their favorite local pub.

The familiar design and number plan (with the # 20 on top) was created by Brian Gamlin in 1896 in Lancashire, England. The plan behind Gamlin's layout was to punish inaccuracy, although this concept was applied to most of the existing dart games during the time. The largest difference between Gamlin's design and existing layouts was the placing of the "20" at the top of the board.

Currently the standard game features a dartboard hung so the bull's eye is five feet and eight inches from the ground. This would mean the bull's eye is exactly at eye-level for a six-foot person. Modern dartboards offer 20 numbered sections (see picture), each section representing numbers 1 through 20, with circular wires that subdivide each section into single, double and triple areas. If you hit a triple area in 20, you receive a score of 60; if you hit a double in a 10, you receive a score of 20.

For this week's post, instead of travelling downstairs to play a game of darts with Josh, Family Leisure's Developer, I decided to take on one of the guys that work around these things on the regular: the "Game Room" Sales Representative for Family Leisure Indianapolis. Big mistake. I lost, and I lost badly. Never take on a man in a game he can practice virtually every free minute he has at work. You will not win.

So I'm not going gloat about the details of the game like I normally do with Josh, mostly because I can't gloat because I lost. Plus I try to forget these bad moments and move on with my life immediately. But I can tell you we played our game on the Cavalier Dart Board with a Wood Cabinet. This gorgeous dartboard comes with two sets of three steel-tipped darts and a tournament-grade dart board set behind a pair of beautiful wood-cabinet doors. That's all I'm telling about our game!

So if you're searching for Dart Boards, Darts or even Replacement Dart Sets and just stumbled across this blog, you're in luck! Family Leisure has you covered with everything you would need to create a wonderful dart game in your game room or basement! Just click one of the above links to view our selection or call 877.775.3478 and ask about our dartboards!