Playing Darts Is a Uniquely Democractic Exercise
Darts is also not exclusively for the wealthy. Competition quality boards can be had for less than thirty dollars by the savvy shopper and a starter set of steel tips will run you roughly twice that amount. Anyone with a wall and nine feet of open space in front of it can quickly have a practice range in their own home.
That’s what makes darts such a definitively American sport. Anyone from a commoner to a king can do it. And they can rise to the top levels of competition with nothing more than the drive to succeed and the will to practice and work toward that goal. Plus, the social benefits go without question. You haven’t experienced quality time with your friends until you see the priceless expression on their faces as they reach down to pull an errant missile out of their thigh. (As a side note to the intemperate, you may need to work on your sprinting speed before attempting that one at your local watering hole.)
Of course there is no good thing under the sun which corporate America can’t screw up when there’s money involved. In the last few decades, some bars have taken to installing electronic “dart machines” which require you to feed cash into a slot for the privilege of letting a computer keep your score, generally getting it wrong more often than not. This is an abomination against the purity of the sport and you should stick chewing gum in the coin slots of these monstrosities whenever you encounter one.
Some states have also taken it into their heads to outlaw steel tips, insisting instead on plastic boards with thousands of tiny holes in them and stiff, nylon-tipped darts. Absent a direct shot to the cornea, you can’t even injure anyone with one of those, and really, where’s the fun in that? Our forebears with their shiny spears and battered ale barrels are surely gagging in disgust at the thought.
Still, at least until the nanny state wades in and ruins the whole thing, darts remains one of your truly American options for entertainment, competition, and opportunity. Go to the ADO home page and look under the regional information tab to find league and tournament information for your area. You’ve got nothing to lose but a little blood. And possibly an eye. But hey! That’s why God gave you two of them, right?
Brilliant. Well done sir! Unfortunately, I live in a blue state that has long since outlawed steel tips as “too dangerous”…barbarians!
Heh, funny stuf.
I am reminded of a game of chicken we used to play .. back.. way way back in my youth. Only this one was performed with the use of lawn darts. You and a bud(or enemy if such was the case.. like a Duel) would stand a bit apart 10-20 feet. Then one would toss a lawn dart into the air and try to land it as close as possible to the other.
However did not move and let the dart land the closest won. A test of manhood.. or stupidity now that I look back on it.
After playing steel tip many years in Atlanta and Dallas, I moved to N. Illinois and there’s only has “toy” darts, which I detest. I love playing darts. It really does take good hand eye coordination. I hated that my husband (even when blind drunk) was naturally good at it and that I, after many hours of practice, I could only manage to be average.
My Dad taught me to toss darts back in the mid 50′s. Steel tips, because that is all there was back in the day.
I started playing rubber darts in the early 90′s and prefer them. The 16gm weight limit changes the toss and makes for thinner darts, which make for tight groupings. My record for trip 20′s is 14 in a row. I can’t do that with big fat steel darts. Of course, most steel dart games are 301 or a variant. Rubber Darts is mostly cricket, so being able to pound a number is critical. You can put 3 rubber darts in the double bull, there isn’t enough room with steel darts to float that last one home. Plus the double bull spins and if you do it right, you can set 2 darts so they guide in the third instead of bouncing it up and into the single bull.
I played for the Triple Nickle bar in St. Pete for a couple of years. Won a national championship the year I was an alternate.
Used to play a slight variant at the frat house: You could only throw your darts when the other player was retrieving theirs. Amazingly, there were few injuries despite our intoxication. We became quiet accurate to prevent a counter-attack. I had to quit playing by those rules after I joined the Marines, and some of my friends’ girlfriends got a little too scared to play against me.
Whatever…limey wannabe…