A Brief History of Darts!
A brief history of the modern game of darts
The brief history of darts!
Darts have had many references to medieval times, with archers, crossbowmen, and spear throwers shortening their weapons into small darts. The claim that Henry VIII, a Tudor King of England, received a set of ornamented darts for games from Anne Boleyn isn’t exactly true. Yes, Henry did receive such a gift; however, these were short-throwing spears, not used for games as such, more for mamming wild boar.
Although many refer to the error in history about the origin of the game of darts, it is not true, as there is no evidence to support this well-held theory.
Read on to the earliest reference to darts as a game, from France.
The Medieval Throwing Dart / Spear / Javelin with a Fletch Feather Flight
The medieval ship, the Mary Rose, has also been referred to as having darts; however, the darts in question here are more like javelins with large feather fletching. All of these were weapons, not the darts we see today. Although some may say they could have been shortened to be used in a game, this is extremely unlikely, as the point on such a throwing weapon was rather large, too large for the spear or dart to be shortened into a dart to be used within a game. The length of these spears, javelins, did, however, vary, and the fletching seen on the throwing dart is designed to keep the dart true in flight. Hence, should the dart hit the rigging in flight, the deflection would still keep the dart pointed in its original direction. Many of these throwing darts were recovered from Mary Rose, and these would have been thrown from the ship at the enemy forces at the time. Sorry, no 180 here!
In medieval times, a throwing dart could be thrown farther with a throwing string. A notch at the rear of the spear/dart could accommodate a short string that would be held at one end by the thrower to launch the spear/dart into the air. This gave the thrower approximately 50% further throwing distance.
In the Tudor reign, gifts were exchanged at New Year rather than at Christmas. It is documented that on New Year's Day 1532, Anne Boleyn gave Henry VIII “an exotic set of richly decorated Pyrenean boar spears” [1]. These have sometimes been misinterpreted as ‘darts’, ‘dartes’ used for a game which is not true.
Henry VIII Pyrenean boar spears were thrown from horseback at wild boar or pigs, not used for target practice. Although these shortened spears could kill directly, it is more likely to injure or create a wound that would not heal, rendering the prey into submission.
Shorter, weighted spears/weighted darts were also thrown from battlements onto attacking forces. These, again, would have been either fully cast-iron or a cast-iron tip with a wooden, feather-fletched tail, like a shorter bow arrow or crossbow bolt, but with a much heavier, tipped end.
Medieval Weapons, throwing darts, formed point, soldiers and the throwing string
Direct evidence for hand-throwing darts into a target for a game or Practice has been hard to find, although we do know archers used a straw or wooden target featuring concentric circles to improve their accuracy. The same, but smaller wooden target boards are used in early throwing dart games and are still made today. It is assumed that darts as a game may have its origins in these times, with beer barrels being used as targets for social entertainment, a bung or cork serving as the main object to hit. This, however, is conjecture and fits well with the sport's development, and we cannot say for sure that this was the case, as no evidence has been found to support this theory.
Shortened bow arrows or crossbow bolts are the most likely forerunners of the modern dart. However, as a game, darts were first made from wood with a metal point with a fletched feather flight. In some cases, the wooden dart was given extra weight using a lead insert. This made the dart point end heavy, or in some cases, a lead/metal strap was added to the barrelled area of the dart. The colour variation in the earlier darts would have served as both a weight indicator and a decorative addition to the wooden dart.
The earliest reference to darts as a game, however, can be traced to France!
Fléchettes
Although references are made to darts first being used in the Middle Ages, when Archers would use a shorter arrow as a throwing arrow into a wooden target, the modern game stems from France.
Darts, known in France as 'Fléchettes' (meaning 'small arrow') consisted of a short dart thrown into a target with concentric rings. The original darts were made from wood. They had a metal point, and the flights were made from bird feathers, mainly turkey feathers.
There is good evidence to support that the English game of darts originated at the fairground. His research says that darts is not unique in this, as other pub games such as Skittles and Aunt Sally also have historic links to the old English fairs (Fayres). It seems these games were popular, and as the fair left town, some of the games remained, or at least a version of them did.
The fairground-style dartboard was designed to make the game look easier than it actually was to win a prize, so the likelihood that the segment section of the dartboard stems from these early fairground boards from the mid-19th century.
Dart and Target (Puff Darts)
Although there is no resemblance to the throwing dart game we see today, Puff and Dart was another forerunner of a target sport involving a dart propelled via a blowpipe. This was not only a parlour game (house game) but also mentioned in ’Lawful Games on Licenced Premises’, 1904. The target was a board with concentric circles and not the segmented target area we are more used to seeing today.
The board would have been made from softwood and painted with three or four different-coloured circles, with a bullseye in the centre.
England Pub Darts
England’s pubs took to darts in a big way, and dartboards and games were devised. Each region would have their own dartboard design. However, most had a segmented-circle target area. To increase difficulty, additional scoring areas were added, notably the double ring, which would normally be situated on the perimeter of the circle. However, on the Tunbridge dartboard, this area scored triple and a different area was used to score doubles! (See regional dartboards section)
The treble ring, as we see it today on a modern dartboard, was introduced in the 1920’s; however, it wasn’t an instant success. The dartboard was known as the ‘London’ or ‘Trebles’ dartboard. The more common dartboard at the time would have been the Yorkshire dartboard. This dartboard consists of twenty scoring areas, a single bullseye and a doubles ring. Why the London dartboard wasn’t an instant success is unclear. However, some may have thought a fluky dart could score much more than the opponent, which may have been one reason. But today, this dartboard has become standard.
So, a single, double and treble! Why not have a quad scoring area? Well, this has already been done with a maximum of a three-dart score of 240! Meaning a 7 dart 501 could be achieved. The dart and dartboard manufacturer Harrow’s introduced such a dartboard. It was known as the Quad 240; It became delisted in 2000, but was again reintroduced in 2025. It did, however, gain some prestige with TV tournaments in the 1990s, and some can still be viewed on YouTube.
(Pictures show an old fairground dartboard)
Some of the regional dartboards both past and present
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Read more about regional dartboards under the Dartboard section of this website.
Dartboard numbers?
A commonly asked question is why are the numbers on a dartboard arranged as they are and who first thought the number sequence up?
I have a page dedicated to this question because it has been a debate for many years. In short two main people feature Brian Gamlin and Thomas William Buckle. Many references give the accreditation to Brian Gamlin who supposedly was a carpenter who lived in Bury, Lancashire in the 19th century. I have lived in this area for over 30 years and done a bit of digging and cannot find any reference or censors naming this man. I even had the local newspaper involved at one point to try and find descendants to no avail. The man cannot be traced.
Thomas William Buckle on the other hand was a wire maker and dartboard maker. He certainly made the Yorkshire dartboard and with some claims from his son he is the more likely candidate for this accolade.
Read more about the Dartboard numbers and if they are set at the optimum positions here.
Picture Thomas William Buckle - Dr Patrick Chaplin Darts Archive - Used with permission
Tomas William Buckle
There are also separate sections on regional dartboards and the games that are played on them.
If you want to learn a bit more about darts and flights, explore the website further. Here you will find the development of darts and dart flights from feathers, paper, and plastic through to other materials such as nylon and modern plastics.
An additional section is also available on dartboard development, from wooden to sisal, and soft-tip darts.
Darts the Professional Sport
A Brief Introduction to Professional Darts over the past several years
Each year, the history of the sport of darts gets extended, and some fascinating facts get lost as time goes on. Having written about the sport for over twenty years, what was relevant then and what is relevant now are entirely different. Nevertheless, fans would like to know more about the history, the players, and the evaluation of this ever-growing sport.
Although darts, as a game using three throwing arrows, can be dated back well over a hundred years, they are derived from the French game Fléchettes, meaning darts or small arrows. Man has thrown spears and small arrows for much longer, and some scholars' references date back further, but lack historical evidence. It is purely speculation.
Darts is a sport that has seen evolutions in the darts, the dartboards, and, indeed, scoring. Besides the primary two games most new players may know, 501 and Cricket, there is a long list of dart games that can be played on a standard dartboard. Further details on darts can be found in a brief history of darts and more in the facts and myths (factoids) of the sport.
In brief, some of the sport's history is covered on this website; here are a few details from the past 40 years as a modern sport.
Darts on TV isn't new. The News of the World Individual Darts Championships featured on TV's Grand Stand Sports Programme, and the 'Indoor League', a programme dedicated to pub sports, were the first to feature darts.
Over the years, some past stars around at this time may not be known by some of the younger visitors, but most notable are Leighton Rees, the first British Darts Organiastion (BDO) World Darts Champions, John Lowe MBE, who won the World Championship three times in three different decades, Eric Bristow MBE who won the title five times and the famous Scot of all Jocky Wilson who also managed this feat twice. Many more were to follow, including Phil Taylor, who dominated the sport for nearly 20 years and raised it to a much higher level.
However, it was back in 1978 when darts became a massive TV hit with the introduction of the first British Darts Organisation (BDO) World Championship. The BBC introduced split-screen technology, allowing viewers to see the dart thrower and the dartboard simultaneously, which made the sport easier to watch and led to massive viewing figures. Today, darts is covered by many channels, notably Sky Sports, which previously stated that darts is the second-most-viewed sport on its channels, behind football.
In 2001, the former British Darts Organisation (BDO) introduced a Women's World Darts Championship. England's Trina Gulliver MBE won the first staging of this event and then won it for seven consecutive years, and made the final again in 2008 and 2009, but only to lose to a new up-and-coming star, Anastasia Dobromyslova from Russia in 2008 and Francis Hoenselaar from Holland in 2009. In 2010, Trina again regained the title, beating Rhian Edwards from Wales 2-0. She repeated this feat in 2011, again beating Rhain Edwards by the same 2-0 margin. In 2016, Trina won the World Darts title, making her the most successful lady darts player in the World, with a record-breaking ten World Titles. Trina has been awarded the MBE for services to darts and charitable fundraising.
In recent years, Lisa Ashton, Mikuru Suzuki and Beau Greaves have come to dominate women's sport.
In 2007, the PDC introduced the first Youth World Championship. Arron Monk won this event, beating Michael van Gerwen 6 - 4 in the final. However, in 2015, the BDO followed suit and introduced its own Youth World Championship. Sixteen-year-old Colin Roelofs from the Netherlands became the first victor, beating seventeen-year-old Harry Ward from England 3 - 0. Harry, unfortunately, didn't win a single leg in the final. However, I am sure we will see a lot more from these youth players in the future.
During the 2019 Lakeside World Championships, calls for a significant review of the ladies' prize fund and the short-match format were raised. The winning prize for women was just £12,000 compared to the men's £100,000. The BDO chairman at the time said this would be reviewed.
2019 also saw several of the top BDO players move to the more lucrative PDC. With £14M annual prize fund at the time and the BDO contract restrictions taken off, players flocked to win a PDC tour card. The PDC prize fund has steadily increased each year since.
In 2020, with a new chairman on board, Des Jacklin moved the BDO World Darts Championship away from the Lakeside venue to the O2 Arena. The move was not well received by loyal BDO darts fans, who decided not to attend in their thousands. The BDO world championship will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. The change of venue and the recent loss of professional darts referees all added to the BDO's misery. The promised prize money was slashed, and the conversation shifted away from the players and toward the chairman. The poor management left the BDO in debt, and the organisation's future in 2020 looked in doubt. Des Jacklin later resigned as chairman but was reinstated following a narrow victory in a county representative vote. However, Jacklin could not convince everyone, and there was a challenge to BDO's dominance in the UK.
The BDO had lost its status as it didn't represent a Country within the World Darts Federation (WDF) and lost its vote. The respective organisation had finally lost its support, and in 2020, several challenges were faced in taking over the running of the Inter-County Championships. The UK Counties voted for a new organisation, the UK Darts Association, to take over the running of the England and Welsh County Leagues. The 2021 British Inter-County Championships will now be known as the UK National League, Premier League, League One, Two, Three, etc. The WDF introduced the World Darts Championship and the World Masters, the first World Championships, again being staged at the Lakeside Country Club in January 2022. It now also includes boys' and girls' World Championship events. Further changes came afoot in 2025, including gender rules and changes to title competitions. Men's was renamed as open. Boys became youth, while women and girls remained unchanged, allowing females to not be excluded from open or youth events.
However, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) now firmly runs the professional side of darts, with more players competing each year for a tour card that allows them to play on the lucrative professional darts circuit.
With increasing worldwide event coverage of the sport, the PDC is the place to be if you are a serious dart player and have the necessary skill level.
Players compete in January each year to obtain a two-year tour card, and with only a few available, the competition is fierce. However, the reward can be life-changing.
In 2026, the PDC, along with the sports sponsors, introduced the first £1,000,000 first prize at the World Darts Championships. The same year also saw an increase in participation from 96 players to 128, with more nations taking part.
Darts is considered one of the fastest-growing worldwide sports. Fans from all ǧendres play and attend events, with many donning fancy dress in the hope that TV cameras will feature them in their broadcast.
UK Honour Awards
In 2019, John Lowe, the former three-time World Darts Champion, was awarded an MBE in the late Queen Elisabeth II's New Year's Honours list. John became the second male dart player to be awarded the MBE. The late Eric Bristow was the first recipient in 1989. Until 2023, the only female player to receive such an award was Trina Gulliver, the Women's ten-time World Darts Champion. In 2023, Fallon Sherrock was named in King Charles III's birthday honours list and received an MBE. In December of the same year, Keith Deller, former BDO World Darts Champion, was also awarded an MBE for raising money for various charitable services in the King's New Year honours. Since then, many dart players have received MBE honours, including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and notably Deta Hedman, who received an OBE
Dart fans may question the above because Phil Taylor was to receive an MBE in 2001. However, he didn't receive it. The award medal was effectively annulled because he was found guilty of an indecent assault. Taylor denied the charges but had to pay £2,000 as a result of his conviction.
UK Awards given by the Crown are subject to conditions. One condition is a recipient's criminal record. Awards issued to others, not necessarily sports stars who have later been found guilty of a crime, also face losing awards and titles issued to them.
Disability / Wheelchair Darts
In 2010, Russ Strobel submitted a new recommended dartboard height to Darts Australia for Wheelchair users. The height Russ has come up with is 137cm to the centre of the Bull. The height is based on the perceived origins of the standard clock dartboard's standard hanging height. It said the average height of a man in England, UK, was 5'8" around the 1920s, the height of the centre bullseye of a standard board. Modern adjustments make that 173cm. Russ took this analogy and worked out the height of a man of 5'8" (173cm) sitting in a wheelchair. His exact figure came out to be 136.5cm. However, as Russ explained, adding 0.5cm would make the recommended wheelchair dartboard height easy to remember, 137cm (wheelchair) - 173cm (Standard). Darts Australia accepted the new height for Wheelchair users, and in 2012, the World Darts Federation also accepted it. Read more about Disability Darts, which is featured on this website.
On this site, you will find a brief history of this intriguing sport and all the information you need to set up the dartboard and organise darting events. You can also learn how dartboards are constructed using sisal (a material used in rope making) and how dart weights, lengths, shafts and flights can alter the dart's flight.
The site also features traditional games played on today's standard dartboards, including some I have written and shared. There are also details on UK Regional dartboards, the Yorkshire and the Manchester log-end, to name just two. You can read the rules of many games from here, and if you are new to the sport, you can download those all-important Dart Checkouts.
You will also find practice routines to improve your accuracy and scoring consistency, as well as information on maintaining your dartboard and darts. Many dart-related links also feature and link to professional dart organisations, manufacturers, suppliers, and players. Thanks to them for their help and support in building this site.
I hope you enjoy the website. Your feedback is always welcome, and if you like the site, please share it with others.
Darts501 / David King / Darts Research
Darts501 was established in 2004, and from its humble beginnings and a few makeovers, the website has attracted well over 36 million viewers, and the trend continues to grow. On average, the website now attracts 1.6-2 million visitors per annum. However, this figure is vastly undervalued, with more people opting not to have their visit to this website recorded. Modern browsers and VPNs allow visitors to block information. Thanks to all who visit and keep coming back for regular updates.
David King writes several dart-related websites, including some professional players' websites. He has written numerous dart games for others to enjoy and provided information on dart sport to other authors, magazines, books and other media publications.
Darts501 has received many positive references from professional players, commentators, and other writers in the sport. It has become a resource that professionals recommend to others.
Further research into the sport continues, including dartboards used across the UK over the past 100 years and the use of darts and dartboards during WWII. You can read my research, including the Secret Service in MI9
Please Enjoy Reading the Website.
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Source Note
1.The Anne Boleyn Files / The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives, p148
Would you like to learn more about Darts History?
Although I have a brief history of the sport within the history section of the Darts501.com website, if you want to read more about the past 100 plus years and players from the past then take a look at Dr Patrick Chaplin's website where he shares lots of information. However, his books always cover more so I suggest you subscribe to his FREE monthly Dr. Darts’ Newsletterand I am sure you will be kept informed of his latest and potentially last book on the sport.
Dr Patrick Chaplin (Darts Historian)
Dart fans will also be pleased to know that Darts Historian Dr Patrick Chaplin is still writing and providing history snippets into the sport. He regularly produces a history newsletter for Dart fans to read. If you would like to be on his circulation list, just head over to his website and sign up for free.
Where this new book will stop is, as yet, unknown.
Patrick has informed us that the newly planned book is unlikely to see the light of day. However, subscribers to his ‘Dr Darts Newsletter’ (DDN) will be able to read more about dart stars of the past, such as Jim Pike and Joe Hitchcock whose life stories have never, until now, been properly recorded.
Patrick’s academic work: Darts in England, 1900-39: A Social History, the book based on his PhD, published in 2009.
Patrick is also Chairman of the Pub History Society and has written two local history books about Langford (Essex) the village in which he was brought up.
Here is a list of Patrick’s past publications, which also includes dart players' autobiographies and joint ventures with dart stars:
Sole author:
Darts in England, 1900-1939 – A social history (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009. Paperback edition 2012)
The Official Bar Guide to Darts (New York: Puzzlewright Press, 2010) )
180! – Fascinating Darts Facts (Stroud: The History Press, 2012) )
Darts. Skills. Tactics. Techniques. (Ramsbury: The Crowood Press, 2015) )
With John Lowe:
John Lowe – Old Stoneface: The Autobiography of Britain’s Greatest Darts Player (London: John Blake, 2005. Revised paperback edition 2009) )
The Art of Darts – A Masterclass with 3-time World Darts Champion (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2009) )
With Trina Gulliver:
Golden Girl – The Autobiography of the Greatest Ever Ladies Darts Player (London: John Blake, 2008) )
With Bobby George:
Scoring for Show, Doubles for Dough – Bobby George’s Darts Lingo (Clacton-on-Sea: Apex Publishing Ltd., 2011) )
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