Is it a sport?

When I was a teenager I would spend endless hours walking up and down my hallway at home. I even spent my break times at school doing the same. I loved it and then I got older, moved out and lost it all as other things going on in my life shifted my focus. What am I on about? Darts!

Getting back into darts has been eating away at me for a while. Sally and I have watched a few pro matches on ITV4. We enjoy critiquing the scorers’ different ‘styles’ of shouting 180! I’ve seen some friends online having a go too, then I think I had a throw in a pub recently where some darts had been left in the board. I think that was what cemented my decision to ask for a board for my birthday last month and get back into it.

Just after my birthday, Sally, Dan and I spent some time up at my parents house in North Wales and I was lucky enough to go and visit a proper darts shop in Caenarfon to get my board. It was an experience in itself.

When we walked in, the shop was literally rammed with darts paraphernalia. I had no idea what to get so I patiently waited while a lad was having his darts’ tips replaced but everyone was speaking welsh and no one had acknowledged me. A few mins went by and I was beginning to think perhaps it was because I was English? but to be fair he sorted the lad out and then asked how he could help. I asked about dartboards and he recommended one which made picking one easy. I asked if I could try some darts and he said try anything I wanted in his cabinet and there was a test board downstairs in the basement. Game on!

The first set of darts were an average 24g and quite short and stumpy. They just didn’t work. I was all over the place, so I tried a 29g set with a longer, slimmer profile and you could just feel how much natural they were to throw.

Darts sorted, Sally and Dan had a throw. Sally threw two out of the board and somehow landed the third one straight in the bullseye. You’d think she’d scored the winning goal at the Euro’s the way she and Dan jumped about celebrating. I just shook my head in disbelief. One of those moments I will always get reminded of now lol. I went back upstairs and picked some spare flights and shafts and came away beaming.

For weeks I’d been deciding where to put the board in the house. Sadly my man cave’s ceiling is too low (converted garage). With the bullseye at 5ft 8 any dart aiming for Tops would probably scrape it, so I decided to mount it in our utility which meant I needed to build a case for it so I could mount it on a door and swing it out.

I roughly drew a simple design and ordered the wood etc off eBay. Enough 4 x 2 for the frame and an 18mm plywood sheet for the door. I got one slightly wider than square so I could mount the board off-centre so when it swung out it wouldn’t be too close to the wall.

The key was to get the height right which was a simple measure and draw a line with a spirit level but drilling holes into the old bricks was a challenge as they were pretty flaky. Eventually though I had it built. It’s perfectly square and the height is spot on. I measured a distance to the oche line and put some tape down and I’ve played every day since. I love it.

Dan had a go this weekend and he couldn’t put the darts down either, which was great having a few games with him. It’s quite addictive. The plan now is to throw a few darts every day. Just 30 mins or so and see where I go. I’d love to be competitive but I’m way off that so I’m just enjoying it.

My highest score so far on this board is 132

So to answer the question: Is it really a sport? Hmmmm, I’m a bit on the fence. Given the skill needed, the hours they put in and the pressure the Pro’s play under. They have a Pro Tour, TV rights etc. so on that basis probably yes but it’s also a pub game isn’t it so I would never think of it as a sport like Football or Athletics.

What do you think?

Adios