Information for Beginners
A dartboard has 20 pie-shaped wedges. The 20’s are always at
the top, in "12 o'clock" position. The small outer ring
is called a double ring. It goes around the very outside of the
pie-wedges. Then there is a section which counts as a single of
that number. Midway to the bulls, there is another small ring,
called the triple ring. A triple 20 would count as three marks
in cricket, or 60 points in X01. There is another singles section,
and then the bulls. Bulls have an outer circle (the single bull, worth
25 points) and an inner circle (the double-bull, worth 50 points.)
In the picture below, there are darts in the double-20, double-bull,
and double-16.
Setup.
The height of the board, from floor-level to the center of the bull,
should be 5 feet 8 inches. (173 Centimeters.) If you're floor isn't
level, then "floor level" means the height where the player will be
standing when they throw. (I've seen a pub or two with signifigant
slants in their floor, so this does come up from time to time. Most
of the time, of course, the floor is going to be level.)
The throwing distance is usually 7 foot 9 and 1/4 inches. (237
centimeters.) (Soft-tip uses a different distance.)
The throwing distance is measured on the floor from the
throwing line to the front of the dartboard. Don't measure
to the wall, or you'll be off by a couple of inches (due to the
thickness of the board.)
If a picture would help, try
this page at dartbase.com
On a properly set up board, a direct line from the center of the bulls-eye
to the throwing line should measure 9 ft 7 and 3/8 inches. (293 centimeters.)
While setting up your board, be sure to consider lights and a scoreboard.
Ideally, you want three or four lights pointed at the board. This helps
reduce shadows which occur if you have one single light. The best scoreboards
in my opinion are black-plastic and use white-chalk pencils to score on. Using
chalkboards is messy. White Dry-Erase boards work well, but the markers tend
to dry up fairly fast.
If you are a new player interested in moving into more competitive (ie, organized)
darts, try this link for information.
I'm always interested in feedback. Just Email me with your comments!
QuickLinks :
Overview - Introduction to Darts
Index to Introduction to Darts
Beginners Only : Board set up and some basics.
Organized Darts (Tournaments and League's)
X01 and Cricket (The two basic games.)
Rules & Strategy : X01 (301, 501, etc.)
Rules & Strategy : Cricket
Rules & Strategy : Norvac
Rules & Strategy : Loops
Rules & Strategy : Super-Cricket (aka Full Board Cricket)
Rules & Strategy : Tic-Tac-Toe
Rules & Strategy : English-Cricket (bulls vs points)
Good Online Resources
Out Chart
