It is generally assumed that Darts began with the famous longbow archers of "Merrie England" the exact beginnings lost in the mist of time. Apparently they used log ends or the bottoms of wine or beer barrels as a target. You have to admit the dart board and the archery target do look similar, and they threw their arrows at the target.

From these humble beginnings the game of darts began, with lots of different rules and equipment. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that the brewery companies saw an opportunity and started darts leagues and local competitions for prize money. Indeed Darts night became a profitable tradition in many pubs around Britain. This is when the rules became more standard as to the height of the board and toe line length etc. The newspaper the News of the World started a darts tournament in the late 20’s and had over 200,000 competitors by the thirties.

During the war, British soldiers took the game with them abroad, and of course the Americans were exposed to the game in the British pubs and took to the game and remembered it when they got back to the US. The game was now spread worldwide although still a game and still associated with drinking beer it grew steadily. The next big leap forward was the formation of the British Darts Organization, or the BDO as it is known and the rules were standardised and the bigger competitions started.

In the eighties the game was televised and of course the sponsors (cigarette and beer companies by and large) weighed in and the sport got a much needed injection of cash. It also helped enormously when John Lowe, a legend in the darts world, got his first televised 9-dart checkout. It caused a sensation at the time, not just because of the feat itself, but for the enormous amount of money he made by doing it. A sponsor had put up £100,000 ($175,000 at the time) for anyone that could do it. That was John’s biggest payday (1984) See Video at bottom of page.

Then came the war of the darters in the 1990’s and the game split into 2 camps, the BDO and the brand new PDC, the Professional Darts Corporation who promised, and have largely achieved, to take darts truly International and have staged tournaments all over the world, hence the Desert Classic in Las Vegas.

During this time the humble dart has changed quite a lot, they are nearly all made from tungsten these days as tungsten gives weight without the bulk, and that has made 180 scores more likely as they can all fit into the treble 20 easier than the old bulkier brass darts.

And the Dart boards? They have also come on leaps and bounds especially in the last few years. Electronics have arrived; the wooden dart board gave way to the bristle dart board (which still gives the most satisfying thud when the dart hits the board in my opinion), which now is giving way to the electronic dart board. These new boards are simply technological marvels; they keep score for you (a great boon in Cricket) and can be programmed to heckle you when you throw, so you feel like you are back in the bar and the new Halex electronic board even marks out the throw line with a LASER! How cool is that, we’ve come a long way from log ends Eh!

Finally, in 2005 UK Sport officially recognised darts as a Sport and International recognition soon followed. The image is also now being cleaned up, gone are the beer glasses and cigarettes, and especially in the PDC tournaments, the guys have really cleaned up their act. Gosh, it is even rumoured the game could be a demo sport for the Olympics! If and when that happens the game will truly have arrived, those archers don’t know what they started.