Darts

Darts

Darts in a dartboard
Highest governing body	WDF
Nicknames	throwers, arrows, tungsten
First played	approx 1860s United Kingdom
Registered players	655 WDF ranked players 679 PDPA ranked players
Characteristics
Contact	No
Team members	Team events exist, see World Cup and PDC World Cup of Darts
Mixed gender	Separate men's & women's championship although no restrictions on women competing against men.
Type	Target sports, Individual sport
Equipment	Set of 3 darts, dartboard
Presence
Olympic	Not ever recognised as an Olympic sport

Darts is a form of throwing sport in which small missiles are thrown at a circular dartboard fixed to a wall. Though various boards and rules 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 sport, darts is a traditional pub game, commonly played in Britain and Ireland, across the Commonwealth, the Netherlands, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the United States, and elsewhere.

Darts were historically used in warfare in ancient history; skirmishers used darts of varying sizes, similar to miniature javelins. It was the practice of this skill that developed into a game of skill. 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 odour, hence the name Nodor), started producing clay dartboards in 1923. The clay dartboards never caught on, and Nodor switched to making the traditional elm dartboards that were popular at the time. Their model of dartboard was not a great success until someone came up with the idea of using the century plant to make a dartboard. 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.

Quality dartboards are made of sisal fibres; less expensive boards are sometimes made of cork or coiled paper. However, several types of sisal fibre are used in dartboards today, originating from East Africa, Brazil, or China. Despite widespread belief that some dartboards are constructed using pig bristles, camel hair, or horse hair, there is no evidence that boards have ever been produced commercially from these materials.