Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target (dartboard) fixed to a wall. Though various different boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules. As well as being a professional competitive activity, darts is a traditional pub game, commonly played in the United Kingdom , across the Commonwealth, the Netherlands, Ireland, the Scandinavian countries, the United States and elsewhere.

Equipment

Dartboard

Before the First World War, pubs in the United Kingdom had dartboards made from solid blocks of wood, usually elm. They had to be soaked overnight to heal the holes made by the darts, and it was a messy business for the publican, although darts was a popular game. This changed when a company called Nodor, whose primary business was making modelling clay (which has no odor, hence the name Nodor), made a dartboard. Their model of dartboard was not a great success until someone came up with the idea of making a dartboard from sisal fibres. Small bundles of sisal fibres of the same length were bundled together. The bundles were then compressed into a disk and bound with a metal ring. It was an instant success, as the darts did little or no damage to the board—they just parted the fibres when they entered the board; this type of board was more durable and required little maintenance.

Modern dartboards are made of sisal fibres; cheap boards are sometimes made of coiled paper. However, several types of sisal fibre are used in dartboards today, originating from East Africa, Brazil or China.

A regulation board is inches (451 mm) in diameter and is divided into 20 radial sections. Each section is separated with metal wire or a thin band of sheet metal. The best dartboards have the thinnest wire, so that the darts have less chance of hitting a wire and bouncing out. The numbers indicating the various scoring sections of the board are also normally made of wire, especially on tournament-quality boards, but may be printed directly on the board instead.

Note that there are variations in the design of a dartboard, reflecting slightly different rules. These will be covered later in this article.

History

The dartboard may have its origins in the cross-section of a tree. An old name for a dartboard is a 'butt', the word comes from the French word but, meaning target. In particular, the Yorkshire and Mealy Manchester Log End boards differ from the standard board in that they have no treble only double and bullseye, The Mealy Manchester board being of a smaller diameter, with a playing area of only 25 cm across with double and bull areas measuring just 4mm.Father and Son Dave and Chris Mealy are the only manufacturers of the Manchester Board. The London Fives board is another variation. This has only 12 equal segments numbered 20,5,15,10,20,5,15,10,20,5,15,10 with the doubles and triples being a quarter of an inch wide. . There is speculation that the game originated among soldiers throwing short arrows at the bottom of the cask or at the bottom of trunks of trees. As the wood dried, cracks would develop, creating "sections". Soon, regional standards emerged and many woodworkers supplemented bar tabs by fabricating dart boards for the local pubs.

The standard numbering plan with a 20 on top was created in 1896 by a Lancashire carpenter called Brian Gamlin. However, a great many other configurations have been used throughout the years and in different geographical locations. Gamlin's layout was devised to penalise inaccuracy. Although this applies to most of the board, the left-hand side (near the 14 section) is preferred by beginners, for its concentration of larger numbers. Mathematically, removing the rotational symmetry by placing the "20" at the top, there are 19!, or 121,645,100,408,832,000 possible dartboards. Many different layouts would penalise a player more than the current setup; however, the current setup actually does the job rather efficiently. There have been several mathematical papers published that consider the "optimal" dartboard.

Height and distance

In the standard game, the dartboard is hung so that the bullseye is 5 ft 8 in (or 173 cm) from the floor—eye-level for a six-foot (183 cm) person. The oche ()—the line behind which the throwing player must stand—is generally 7 ft 9¼ in (or 237 cm) from the face of the dartboard measured horizontally. Another recognised way of dartboard / oche dimensions is as thus... set up the dartboard on a solid wall whereas the distance from the floor to the centre of the bullseye (in the centre of the dartboard) is 68 inches, then measuring again from the centre of the bullseye in a diagonal manner, measure 115.41 inches from the bulleye to the rear of the oche and this will ensure true and accurate allround dimensions, provided the floor is horizontal and the walls are plumb. An alternate means of measuring the distance from the bullseye to the far side of the oche or throwing line. It is 93.249 inches from the rear of the oche to a plumb line hanging (right angle) from the bulls eye. 93.249 is calculated using Pythagorean theorem, a² + b² = c². This is the recognized world standard as set by the World Darts Federation and is used in most areas.

The London 5 board or narrow 5s board set up is slightly different from the standard board. The height is set at 5 feet 6 inches to the centre of the bull and the oche is at 9 feet from the face of the board.

Scoring

The standard dartboard is divided into 20 numbered sections, scoring from 1 to 20 points, by wires running from the small central circle to the outer circular wire. Circular wires within the outer wire subdivide each section into single, double and triple areas. The dartboard featured on the "Indoor League" television show of the 1970s did not feature a triple section, and according to host Fred Trueman during the first episode, this is the traditional Yorkshire board.

Various games can be played (and still are played informally) using the standard dartboard. However, in the official game, any dart landing inside the outer wire scores as follows:

Hitting one of the large portions of each of the numbered sections, traditionally alternately coloured black and white, scores the points value of that section.

* Hitting the thin inner portions of these sections, roughly halfway between the outer wire and the central circle coloured red and green, scores triple the points value of that section.

* Hitting the thin outer portions of these sections, again coloured red or green, scores double the points value of that section. The double-20 is often referred to as double-top, reflecting the 20's position on the dartboard.

The central circle is divided into a green outer ring worth 25 points (known as "outer", "outer bull", or "iris") and a red inner circle (usually known as "bull", "inner bull" or "double bull"), worth 50 points. The term "bullseye" can mean either the whole central part of the board or just the inner red section. The term "bull's ring" usually means just the green outer ring.

Hitting outside the outer wire scores nothing.

Any dart that does not remain in the board after throwing (for example, a dart that hits a wire and bounces out of the board or drops out with the impact of a later throw) also scores nothing; exception should be noted if play is on any electronic board: darts falling out are counted.

The highest score possible with three darts is 180, commonly known as a "ton 80" (100 points is called a ton), obtained when all three darts land in the triple 20. In the televised game, the referee frequently announces a score of 180 in exuberant style. A "quad" ring appeared briefly in the 1990s, leading to a potential 240 maximum (three quad-20s), a 210 maximum checkout (Q20-Q20-Bull) and seven dart finishes from a 501 start (five quad-20s, triple-17, bullseye), but was swiftly dropped from professional tournament play.

Playing darts

There are many games that can be played on a dartboard, but darts generally refers to a game whereby the player throws three darts per visit to the board with the goal of reducing a fixed score, commonly 501 or 301, to zero, with the final dart landing in either the bullseye or a double segment. A game of darts is generally contested between two players, or two teams, who take turns in throwing up to three darts.

A throw that reduces a player's score below zero, to exactly one, or to zero but not ending with a double is known as "going bust", with that player's score being reset and their turn forfeited. A darts match is played over a fixed number of games, known as legs. A match may be divided into sets, with each set being contested as over a fixed number of legs.

Although playing straight down from 501 is standard in darts, sometimes a double must be hit to begin scoring, known as "doubling in", with all darts thrown before hitting a double not being counted. The PDC's World Grand Prix uses this format.

The minimum number of thrown darts required to complete a leg of 501 is nine. The most common nine dart finish consists of two 180 maximums followed by a 141 checkout (T20-T19-D12), but there are many other possible ways of achieving the feat. Three 167s (T20-T19-Bull) is considered a pure or perfect nine dart finish by some players, most notably the flamboyant Bobby George.

Other darts games and variants

There are a number of regional variations on the standard rules and scoring systems. "Round the Clock" is a variation that involves hitting the numbers in sequence. "Jumpers" is a variation played in Asia.

Fives

' or 'Fives' dartboard]] A regional variant still played in some parts of the East End of London. The board has fewer, larger segments, all numbered either 5, 10, 15 or 20. Players play down from 505 rather than 501, and stand the farthest (9 ft) away from the board of any mainstream variation.

American darts

American Darts, despite the name, is a regional USA variant of the game (most U.S. dart players play the traditional games described above). This style of dart board is most often found in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and parts of New York state.

Darts cricket

Dartball

Dartball is a darts game based on the sport of baseball. It is played on a diamond shaped board and has similar scoring to baseball.

Dart Golf

Dart golf is a darts game based on the sport of golf. It is played on both special golf dartboards and traditional dartboards. Also, it has similar scoring to golf.

Shanghai

Shanghai is a darts game of accuracy. Hitting doubles and triples is paramount to victory. This game is played with at least two players. The standard version is played in 7 rounds.

Lawn Darts

Lawn darts (also called Jarts or yard darts) is a lawn game based on darts. The game play and objective are similar to both horseshoes and darts. The darts are similar to the ancient Roman plumbata.

Darts organizations

Amateur League Organizations

The American Darts Organization promulgates rules and standards for amateur league darts and sanctions tournaments in the United States. The American Darts Organization began operation January 1, 1976 with 30 charter member clubs and a membership of 7,500 players. Today, the ADO has a membership that averages 250 clubs on a yearly basis representing roughly 50,000 members.

Professional Organizations

Of the two professional organisations, the British Darts Organisation (BDO), founded 1973, is the older. Its tournaments are often shown on the BBC in the UK and on SBS6 in the Netherlands. The BDO is a member of the World Darts Federation (WDF) (founded 1976), along with organizations in some 60 other countries worldwide. The BDO originally organised a number of the more prestigious British tournaments with a few notable exceptions such as the News of the World Championship and the national events run under the auspices of the National Darts Association of Great Britain. However, many sponsors were lost and British TV coverage became much reduced by the early nineties.

In 1992 a breakaway organisation was formed, initially known as the World Darts Council (WDC) but shortly after known as the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). The PDC tournaments have a considerable following, although the PDC World Championship attracts lower TV viewing figures than that of the BDO.

The PDC tournaments often have higher prize money and feature the leading player in the history of the game, 15-time World Champion Phil Taylor. The highly successful BDO player Raymond van Barneveld switched to the PDC and won the PDC World Championship at his first attempt in 2007.

Professional darts

The BDO and PDC both organise a World Professional Championship. They are held annually over the Christmas/New Year period, with the PDC championship finishing slightly earlier than the BDO tournament. The BDO World Championship has been running since 1978; the PDC World Championship started in 1994.

Both organisations hold other professional tournaments. The BDO organise the World Masters and many Open tournaments. They also organise county darts for their 66 county members in the UK including individual and team events.

The PDC's major tournaments are the World Championship, Premier League, UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix. All of these are broadcast live on Sky Sports television in the UK. They also hold PDC Pro Tour events and smaller category events around the UK. As of 2007 the PDC have introduced two new televised major tournaments—the US Open (to be broadcast on Challenge TV) and the Grand Slam of Darts (to be screened on ITV).

Two Dutch independently organised major tournaments, the International Darts League and the World Darts Trophy introduced a mix of BDO and PDC players in 2006 and 2007. Both organisations allocated rankings to the tournaments, but these two events are now discontinued.

The WDF World Cup for national teams and a singles tournament has been played biennially since 1977. The WDF also organise the Europe Cup.

Professional darts players

World Champions

See World Professional Darts Championship

2010 World Champions :BDO: Martin Adams Wolfie :PDC: Phil Taylor The Power :Women's BDO: Trina Gulliver The Golden Girl :Women's PDC: Stacy Bromberg

Multiple World Champions :15 Phil Taylor The Power (13 PDC, 2 BDO) : 8 Trina Gulliver The Golden Girl : 5 Eric Bristow Crafty Cockney : 5 Raymond van Barneveld Barney / The Man (4 BDO, 1 PDC) : 3 John Part Darth Maple (1 BDO, 2 PDC) : 3 John Lowe Old Stoneface : 3 Martin Adams Wolfie : 2 Ted Hankey The Count : 2 Jocky Wilson : 2 Dennis Priestley The Menace (1 BDO, 1 PDC)

Former one-time BDO World Champions :Bob Anderson The Limestone Cowboy :Steve Beaton Magnum-PI/ The Bronze Adonis :Richie Burnett The Prince of Wales :Tony David The Deadly Boomerang :Keith Deller The Fella / The Milky Bar Kid :Andy Fordham The Viking :Jelle Klaasen The Matador :Leighton Rees :Les Wallace McDanger :John Walton John Boy :Mark Webster Webby

World rankings

Both the WDF, BDO and PDC each maintain their own rankings lists. These lists are commonly used to determine seedings for various tournaments. The WDF rankings are based on the preceding 12 months performances, the BDO resets all ranking points to zero after the seedings for their world championship have been determined, and the PDC Order of Merit is based on prize money earned over a two year period.

Televised darts

Darts first appeared on British television in 1962 when Westward Television broadcast the Westward TV Invitational to the south-west of England. In 1970, ITV broadcast the News of the World Championship and from 1972 the Indoor League, which featured a darts tournament.

Over the next decade darts coverage expanded with many major tournaments appearing on both ITV and BBC through the 1970s and early 1980s, but the cancellation of ITV's World of Sport show in 1985 meant they had to cut back on darts coverage but despite this they still showed the World Masters until 1988. The BBC also cut back on their coverage to the extent that one major event was still broadcast on either channel by 1988—the World Championship.

With the creation of the WDC/PDC in 1992/93, darts gradually returned to television with Sky Television covering the new organization's World Championship and World Matchplay events from 1994. Sky's coverage continued to increase throughout the 1990s, with more new events added. The PDC's World Championship, Premier League, UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix are all televised live on Sky.

The BBC finally began to expand their darts coverage in 2001 when they added the World Masters to their portfolio. However, it wasn't until 2005 that viewers were able to see every dart thrown live at the World Championship. This was the year that BBC introduced interactive coverage on its BBCi service.

Darts has continued to grow again on television and there now several major tournaments broadcast in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. Dutch station, Sport One, DSF in Germany and several other TV stations across the globe also broadcast the PDC events.

In Europe, Eurosport broadcast the Lakeside World Championships, having signed a three-year contract in 2006, and that year also broadcast the Finland Open, the BDO British Internationals, the BDO England Open and the BDO British Open. There has been no Eurosport coverage of Open events since 2007.

In the Netherlands, SBS6 has broadcast the Lakeside (since 1998) and the Dutch Open. They also shown the International Darts League and World Darts Trophy, however they are now defunct. RTL 5 broadcast the Dutch Grand Masters in 2005. Some of these tournaments can also be watched on the internet for free using a live stream, depending on contractual restrictions (external links: SBS Streams and Watchdarts.com stream)

The PDC has also tried to break into the television market in the United States by introducing the World Series of Darts in 2006. It had a $1 million prize to showcase professional darts in the United States. Unfortunately the programme was not a ratings success and was taken from its peak time broadcast slot on ESPN after just a few weeks. The tournament was replaced with a US Open event in 2007 which was screened in the UK on digital television channel Challenge TV, with Nuts TV showing the 2008 tournament.

ITV returned to darts coverage in November 2007, showing the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts—its first major darts tournament coverage in almost twenty years. They also added a second PDC event in October 2008 with the new European Championship. Setanta Sports have also televised darts tournaments for the first time during 2008 by showing several BDO Open events and the new BetFred League of Legends.

Betting

In places where alcohol is consumed, English law has long permitted betting only on games of skill, as opposed to games of chance, and then only for small stakes. An apocryphal tale relates that in 1908, Jim Garside, the landlord of the Adelphi Inn, Leeds, England was called before the local magistrates to answer the charge that he had allowed betting on a game of chance, darts, on his premises. Garside asked for the assistance of local champion William Bigfoot Anakin who attended as a witness and demonstrated that he could hit any number on the board nominated by the court. Garside was discharged as the magistrates found darts, indeed, to be a game of skill. More recently, in keeping with Darts' strong association with pubs and drinking, matches between friends or pub teams are often played for pints.

In the professional game, betting is prominent with many of the big bookmaking companies sponsoring events (particularly within the PDC). Sky Bet (Premier League), Bodog (World Grand Prix), Stan James (World Matchplay), Blue Square (UK Open) and Ladbrokes (World Championship) are all title sponsors of major PDC events.

On FSN broadcasts in the United States, the logos for Ladbrokes are pixelized out and digitally obscured, along with any audible references to Ladbrokes, due to American laws and policies against online gambling.

See also

Darts world rankings—current ranking lists for BDO and PDC

Darts tournaments—previous winners, history and information

Darts players profiles

Nine dart finish—the "perfect" game in darts

Glossary of darts

Pub games

Bullseye—a British game show based on darts

References

Further reading

. Scholarly history showing how darts figured in publicans' efforts to improve their establishments, and how the sport moved from a working-class pursuit to gain middle- and upper-class players.

External links

American Darts Organization

British Darts Organisation

International Dart Federation

Professional Darts Corporation

World Darts Federation

Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
Name	Colin Lloyd
Nickname	Jaws
Birth date	August 07, 1973
Birth place	Colchester, Essex, England
Hometown	Chelmsford, Essex
Homecountry	England
Since	1999
Darts	18g Target Pure One
Laterality	Right-handed
Music	Monster (2006) by The Automatic
Pdc	1999 - present
Currentrank	13
World darts trophy	Quarter Finalist 2006
Int. darts league	Runner Up 2006
Pdc world	Semi Finalist 2002
Matchplay	Winner 2005
Grand prix	Winner 2004
Grand slam	Last 16 (3) 2007, 2009, 2010
Premier league	Runner Up 2005
Championship league	Initial groups, Runner-up 2008
Vegas	Semi Finalist 2003
European	Semi Finalist 2010
Uk open	Semi Finalist 2007
Us open	Runner-up 2008
Pc finals	Quarter Finalist (3) 2009, 2010, 2011
Tournament	UK Open Regional (NE)
Resultyears	2009
Achievement	PDC World Number 1 from April 2005 to January 2007 (except for March to May 2006)
Updated	17 February 2008

Colin Lloyd (born 7 August 1973 in Colchester, Essex), nicknamed Jaws, is a darts player on the Professional Darts Corporation circuit. He is a former world number one ranked player and he has won two major television titles in the PDC - the 2004 World Grand Prix and 2005 World Matchplay. His entrance music is "Monster" by The Automatic.

Early career

A former builder, Lloyd broke onto the scene in 1999, making his TV debut the same year, thrashing Alan Warriner 13-2 in the second round of the World Matchplay. His World Championship debut came in 2000 - but he lost in the first round to Shayne Burgess. After another first round loss at the 2001 World Championships, his major breakthrough was in the 2002 PDC World Championship, where he reached the semi-finals losing to Peter Manley. He had beaten Alex Roy, Warriner-Little and Richie Burnett to reach the semi-finals that established him as one of the top players on the PDC circuit.

Major success

His long-awaited first major title came in the 2004 World Grand Prix, where he beat Warriner-Little in the final. His success in the non-televised PDC Pro Tour events saw his world ranking continue to rise. By April 2005 he had reached world number one - a position he held (with a brief interruption in June 2006) for almost two years.

Soon after becoming World Number One he added the 2005 World Matchplay title in Blackpool, beating John Part in the final, ending the match on a maximum 170 checkout. He also reached the final of the 2005 World Grand Prix before losing 7-1 to Phil Taylor.

This good form made him second favourite in the 2006 World Championship, only behind Taylor in terms of odds. Unfortunately for Lloyd, he was knocked out in the first round by qualifier Gary Welding, having led 2-0 in the best-of-five match. He reached the final of the International Darts League in the Netherlands in May 2006, losing to Raymond van Barneveld.

Loss of form

Lloyd suffered a surprise defeat in the first round of the 2006 World Championship then a heavy defeat 2-11 to Taylor at the 2006 UK Open saw his form in televised events dip dramatically.

He lost in the first round of the 2006 Las Vegas Desert Classic to Chris Mason, to Steve Maish (despite a ten-dart leg where he was two darts away from a nine dart finish) at the 2006 World Matchplay and to Bob Anderson in the first round of the World Grand Prix. He lost his world number one ranking after a second round loss to eventual world champion van Barneveld at the 2007 PDC World Championship. He had led 3-0 in sets but missed four darts for the match and lost the next four sets.

Lloyd lost in the first round of the 2007 US Open to Jim Widmayer before showing some improvement with a run to the semi-finals of the 2007 UK Open. But he continued to lose ranking places as his good results from the two-year ranking period were replaced with further first round losses to Wes Newton at the 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic and to Mervyn King at the 2007 World Matchplay.

He went into the 2008 World Championship ranked 12th in the world, having been number one just twelve months previously. He missed a dart at bullseye to win his first round match with Jan van der Rassel and then lost 2-3 (6-4 in legs in the final set).

Lloyd's poor form at the 2009 World Championship continued as he lost in straight sets to Holland's Jelle Klaasen in the first round.

After winning his first round match at the 2009 World Matchplay against Wayne Jones, Lloyd announced that he had just recovered from swine flu and had been placed in isolation for five days. Lloyd kept the news a secret until his interview with Sky Sports after the match.

In the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship Colin, whilst playing the German darts player Andree Welge out of frustration from slipping from a 2-0 lead to be all square at 2-2, controversially punched the dart board. Despite winning the match 3-2 with a 116 out shot, after the match Colin said that he regretted what he did and said it was born out of pure frustration. He also added in the interview that he expected to be fined by the PDC.

In 2011 at the Quayside Steven Adams Invitational, Lloyd decided to retire from the game. Upon seeing Richard Butler take out double 13 with his first dart,Kevin Fisher then took out tops to level the match before Butler and Price went on to win, he stormed out of the venue and sped off in his chauffeur driven BMW. Lloyd declared It's a young man's game and I can't compete with the likes of Butler and Price. I've beaten Phil Taylor before but these boys are something else. They are worth the admission fee on their own.

Premier League performances

Lloyd qualified for the first three Premier League tournaments between 2005 and 2007 - the tournament is restricted to the top ranked players in the PDC. In 2005, he finished second after the league stage but lost to Taylor in the final. In 2006 he went out to eventual winner Taylor in the semi finals, then finished 5th in the league stage in 2007. Due to his slip in rankings, he failed to qualify for either the 2008 Premier League or the 2009 Premier League.

World Championship performances

:2011 (PDC) last 32 lost to Richard Butler 2-4 :2010 (PDC) last 16 lost to Matthew Price 4-1 :2009 (PDC) last 64 lost to Kevin Fisher 0-3 :2008 (PDC) last 64 beat John Deal 0-3 :2007 (PDC) last 32 lost to Steven Adams 3-4 :2006 (PDC) last 64 lost to Gary Welding 2-3 :2005 (PDC) Quarter Final lost to Wayne Mardle 4-5 :2004 (PDC) last 16 lost to Wayne Mardle 3-4 :2003 (PDC) last 16 lost to Chris Mason 1-5 :2002 (PDC) Semi Final lost to Peter Manley 4-6 :2001 (PDC) last 32 lost to John Part 0-3 :2000 (PDC) last 32 lost to Shayne Burgess 0-3

References

External links

Colin Lloyd's Official Website

Profile on PDC official website

Lloyd's darts database

Category:English darts players Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:Professional Darts Corporation players