A 1908 Leeds pub trial proved darts was skill, not gambling luck
Darts players throw pointed missiles at a circular board whose scoring zones do not simply rise toward the bull. After a Leeds landlord's 1908 prosecution, courts classed it as skill, freeing pub play. Tree-trunk cross-sections likely inspired the ringed board; butt once meant target from French but.
Professional tours and British Isles pub culture coexist. Unlike archery, high scores scatter across doubles and triples rather than rewarding only center hits. Variants abound, yet the classic clock-face layout rules recreational nights worldwide.
The standard numbering is credited, disputedly, to Lancashire carpenter Brian Gamlin in 1896, designed to punish inaccuracy; regional boards such as the Yorkshire and Manchester log ends have no triple ring. With 20 fixed at the top, there are 19 factorial possible arrangements, over 121 quadrillion, and although many would be harsher, the standard one does its job efficiently. A regulation board is 451 mm across with 20 wired sections. Modern darts have four parts, point, barrel, shaft and flight, with points usually 32 or 41 mm long. Flights add drag so the tail cannot overtake the point, and standard, kite and pear are the commonest shapes.
Pre-war British pubs used elm boards that had to be soaked to stay soft and wore holes around the treble twenty. In 1935 chemist Ted Leggatt and publican Frank Dabbs began compressing bundles of agave sisal into a disc bound by a metal ring, a board so durable it caught on at once; quality boards still use sisal from East Africa, Brazil and China. The first darts were cut-down arrows or crossbow bolts, then lead-weighted wooden French darts with turkey-feather flights, and metal barrels were patented in 1906. Tungsten, twice as dense as brass, now allows barrels about thirty percent slimmer at the same weight.
Source: Darts
