Darts

Players and equipment

Two players or more, up to eight, individually or in pairs. A dartboard hung with the bull five feet eight inches from the floor, an oche seven feet nine and a quarter inches back, and three darts each. The board is numbered one to twenty round the edge, with a small number either side of every big one.

SquareScores keeps the score. Everyone starts on 501 and counts down; on the sheet you enter what each visit scored, the column adds up, and the caption says what is left. Reaching 501 on the sheet is reaching zero on the board.

The deal

Throw one dart each at the bull for the order; nearest throws first. In a match, alternate who throws first from leg to leg.

Play

Three darts a visit. A dart scores where it sticks: the number of the segment, doubled in the outer ring, trebled in the inner ring; the outer bull is 25 and the inner bull 50. Darts that fall out or bounce off score nothing and are not thrown again.

Play down to zero and finish on a double, the outer ring or the inner bull. A visit that would take you below zero, to exactly one, or to zero without a double is a bust: the visit scores nothing and your score stays where it was. One is a bust because no double is worth one.

Nothing is needed to start: the first dart counts. Some pubs still ask for a double to open the scoring.

Enter it

A scoring visit

Add up the three darts and enter the total

A bust

Enter 0, so the sheet stays where the board is

The finish

Enter the visit that hits the double, and the sheet reaches 501 exactly

Scoring

Single

1 to 20

The segment's number

Double

2 to 40

The outer ring

Treble

3 to 60

The inner ring

Outer bull

25

Inner bull

50

Counts as a double

Best visit

180

Three treble twenties

The biggest finish in one visit is 170: two treble twenties and the inner bull. Nine darts is the fewest that can finish a leg from 501.

A worked leg

Alice and Ben are playing a leg of 501. Alice's visits are shown with what the sheet records and what is left on the board.

Alice, visit one

140, leaving 361

Treble twenty, treble twenty, single twenty

Alice, visit two

85, leaving 276

Treble twenty, single twenty, single five

Alice, visit three

180, leaving 96

Three treble twenties

Alice, visit four

87, leaving 9

Treble twenty, then single eighteen and single nine going for the doubles

Ben, on 40

0, a bust: still 40

Single twenty, single ten, then a stray twenty aiming at double five

Alice, visit five

9, the leg

Single one, then double four

Alice's column reads 140, 225, 405, 492 and then 501, and the caption under it counts down 361, 276, 96, 9 and out. Her fourth visit is the ordinary shape of a finish: 96 wanted, a treble twenty leaves 36 for double eighteen, the miss drops into the single eighteen and leaves eighteen for double nine, and a second miss leaves nine. Ben's visit is the bust: from 40 he takes single twenty and single ten, needs double five, and his last dart wanders into the twenty next door. That would take him to minus ten, so the whole visit is void, he enters 0 and stays on 40. Alice then takes a single one to leave eight, and hits double four for the leg.

Ending

The first player to hit their double wins the leg. Tap End match, and the leaderboard counts legs won. A match is best of three, five or more legs; the host can set the line to 301 for a shorter game.

Treble twenty, and why

The treble twenty is worth sixty, the most a single dart can score, and it sits at the top of the board where most people throw most naturally. So the scoring part of a leg is simple: throw at the treble twenty until the number left is one you can finish. A miss lands in the single twenty most of the time, still the best single on the board, and only a bad miss finds the one or the five. Players who are not yet consistent sometimes do better on the treble nineteen, whose neighbours are the seven and the three, so a poor miss costs less.

When to go for a finish

Under 170 you can finish in one visit, and under about a hundred you should be thinking about it with every dart. The question with each dart is what it leaves. From 96, a treble twenty leaves 36 and a double eighteen wins; from 100, a treble twenty leaves 40 and a double twenty wins. From a number that no treble sets up neatly, take a single that does: from 61 a single twenty-five leaves 36. Arrange it so that the double you want is one you have hit before, and so that a miss into the single still leaves a double.

Leaving a double

An even number under forty-one is a double you can hit with one dart, and the good ones are the even numbers whose halves are also even. Thirty-two is the classic, double sixteen: miss into the single sixteen and you leave sixteen, which is double eight; miss that and you leave eight, double four, then double two. Forty, double twenty, is the same idea one step up and is the one most strong players go for. An odd number left is a wasted dart, because you need a single to make it even before you can finish.

The bogey numbers

Between 170 and 100 there are seven totals that cannot be finished in three darts however they are thrown: 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 and 159. If you are left on one of them, stop trying to finish and set up the next visit instead. Below them, most numbers can be finished: any even number up to 40 falls to one dart, 50 falls to the bull, and numbers like 60, 80 and 100 fall to a single or treble twenty and then a double. Say the number left out loud after every visit, so both players agree before the next darts go in.

301

The same game from 301 instead of 501, and traditionally played double in as well as double out: nothing counts until a dart has landed in a double. A leg is shorter, so 301 suits a big group or a match of many legs. The host can set the line to 301 on the sheet.

Around the Clock

Each player has to hit the numbers one to twenty in order, moving on only when the number in hand is hit; doubles and trebles of the right number count. The first to hit the twenty wins, and some tables finish on the bull. There is no score to keep, only the number each player is on.

Cricket

The American pub game. Only the numbers fifteen to twenty and the bull are used. Hitting a number three times closes it, with a treble counting as three hits and a double as two, and once you have closed a number every further hit on it scores its value until your opponent closes it too. The game ends when one player has closed every number and the bull and has at least as many points as the other.

Killer

Each player throws one dart with their weaker hand to claim a number. Hitting the double of your own number makes you a killer; a killer who hits the double of another player's number takes one of that player's lives, usually three to start with, and a killer who hits their own double again loses one of their own. The last player with a life left wins. A game for a crowd rather than a match.

Shanghai

Seven rounds, or twenty, with every player throwing three darts at the number of the round: singles, doubles and trebles score their value, and the highest total at the end wins. Hitting the single, double and treble of the round's number in one visit is a Shanghai and wins the game on the spot. A good scoring game for the numbers people rarely aim at.

How do you score in darts?

A dart scores the number of the segment it lands in, from one to twenty. The narrow outer ring doubles that number and the narrow inner ring trebles it, so the most one dart can score is sixty, a treble twenty. The outer ring of the centre is twenty-five and the inner bull is fifty. In the standard game each player starts on 501 and takes off what each visit of three darts scores.

What does it mean to finish on a double in darts?

To win a leg you have to reach exactly zero, and the dart that takes you there has to land in the outer double ring, or in the inner bull, which counts as a double. So from thirty-two you need double sixteen, from forty you need double twenty. A visit that takes you past zero, to exactly one, or to zero without a double does not count at all, and you go back to the score you had before the visit.

What is a bust in darts?

A visit that would take your score below zero, to exactly one, or to zero on a dart that is not a double. The whole visit is void, including the darts before the one that went wrong, and your score stays where it was. On the sheet, enter 0 so that the total does not move.

Why is 180 the best score in darts?

Three darts in the treble twenty is three lots of sixty, and sixty is the most one dart can score. So 180 is the most a visit can score, and it is the number a crowd calls out. It is not a finish, because the last dart has to be a double, which is why the biggest checkout is 170 and not 180.

What is the highest checkout in darts?

170: treble twenty, treble twenty and the inner bull, which counts as double twenty-five. It is the biggest number that can be finished in a single visit. Between 170 and 100 there are seven numbers that cannot be finished in three darts at all: 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 and 159, called the bogey numbers.

How high is a dartboard and how far away do you stand?

The centre of the bull is five feet eight inches from the floor, about 1.73 metres. The throwing line, called the oche, is seven feet nine and a quarter inches from the face of the board, about 2.37 metres, measured along the floor.