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Quick answers
Why are the numbers on a dartboard in that order?
The sequence — 20, 1, 18, 4, 13, 6, 10, 15, 2, 17, 3, 19, 7, 16, 8, 11, 14, 9, 12, 5 clockwise from the top — is designed to punish inaccuracy. Every high number is flanked by two of the lowest, so a dart that drifts a few millimetres off the 20 lands in the 5 or the 1, and a wayward visit can score under 10. That arrangement is what makes darts a skill sport rather than a lottery: precision is rewarded disproportionately and near misses are penalised harder than a deliberately safe shot at a middling number. The design is traditionally credited to Brian Gamlin, a carpenter from Bury, in 1896, though no documentary evidence has ever confirmed it.
What is a nine-dart finish?
A nine-darter is a perfect leg: 501 checked out in the minimum possible nine darts. The classic route is 180, 180, then treble 20, treble 19, double 12 to finish 141. Alternatives include 167, 167, 167, each of treble 20, treble 19 and bullseye. John Lowe threw the first on television on 13 October 1984 and collected £102,000. It remains the sport's signature achievement, though it has become far less rare: professionals now throw several a season across the circuit, and Phil Taylor holds the record of eleven on television, including two in a single match in the 2010 Premier League final against James Wade.
Why do you have to finish on a double?
The double-out rule exists to stop legs ending by accident and to place the hardest shot at the most pressurised moment. Without it a player could simply scrape to zero with any dart, and the finish would carry no risk. Requiring an exact landing in a bed roughly eight millimetres wide means that scoring your way to a finish is only half the job — the best scorers in the world convert only about 35 to 45 per cent of their double attempts in televised matches. It also creates the game's arithmetic: what you leave yourself matters as much as what you score, which is why professionals engineer finishes toward 32 and 40 rather than simply taking the biggest available number.
How far do you stand from a dartboard?
The throwing line, called the oche, is 2.37 metres (7 feet 9.25 inches) from the face of the board, measured horizontally along the floor. The centre of the bullseye sits 1.73 metres (5 feet 8 inches) above the floor, which puts it at roughly eye level for an average adult male — the height was standardised from pub practice rather than designed. Both measurements were fixed internationally by the World Darts Federation in the 1970s, ending decades of local variation in which distances were paced out rather than measured. A player may lean over the oche as far as balance allows but must not step on or beyond it, and the diagonal distance from the throwing point to the bull is 2.93 metres.
What is a three-dart average and what counts as good?
It is total points scored divided by darts thrown, multiplied by three — the sport's headline measure of scoring power. A casual pub player might average in the 40s or 50s, a good league player in the 70s, and a county-standard player in the 80s. A PDC Tour Card holder needs to average in the mid-90s to survive on the circuit. Above 100 in a televised match is a strong performance, above 105 is exceptional, and the all-time televised record is Michael van Gerwen's 123.40 against Michael Smith in 2016. Because the average includes the darts thrown at doubles, missed checkouts drag it down, which is why a player can average higher than an opponent and still lose comfortably.
Why do some players aim at treble 19 instead of treble 20?
Because the punishment for missing is smaller. The treble 20 pays 60 but sits between the 5 and the 1, so a slight drift costs almost everything. The treble 19 pays 57 — only three fewer — and sits between the 3 and the 7, so a miss costs roughly half as much. Over a long match, players who favour the 19s argue the reduced variance outweighs the lower ceiling. The counter-argument is that 180 only exists at the top of the board and a twelve-dart leg usually needs it. Most professionals score on the 20 by default and switch to the 19 when their darts are consistently dropping into the 5, which signals a mechanical fault rather than bad luck.
Darts is one of the cheapest games to take up in the UK. A pub will lend you house darts for your first night, a decent set of your own costs from around £15, and a lot of pub boards are still free to play if you buy a drink. The spending pattern is unlike most other sports, though: instead of one big outlay, small amounts leak away weekly in bar tabs, league subs and replacement flights.
One thing to know before starting: in the UK, darts almost always means steel-tip darts thrown at a bristle board, the format used at the PDC World Championship. This differs from the soft-tip electronic-board darts common in East Asia and parts of the US, where a plastic-tipped dart is thrown at an electronic board that scores automatically. The throwing distance and dart weight also differ between the two formats. Figures below reflect UK pricing for 2025-2026 and vary between city centres and smaller towns.
Gear and budget
Steel-tip dart set (barrel, shaft, flight)
Starter price £15-45
The first thing to buy, and effectively the only thing worth buying quickly. A basic starter set with barrel, shaft and flight already assembled runs £15-25, while a branded barrel bought on its own runs £25-45. Steel-tip barrels typically weigh 20-24 grams, and 22 grams is a sensible default for a beginner. A higher tungsten content lets a barrel be made thinner at the same weight, which helps grouping, but there is no reason to pay extra for that at entry level. Borrowing house darts of different weights and grips for the first few visits, then buying once you have a feel for what suits you, is far better than guessing online.
Dartboard (bristle)
Starter price £25-70
Needed once you want to practise outside the pub. A regulation bristle board, made from compressed sisal fibres so the holes close up after a dart is pulled, costs £25-40 for an entry model and £50-70 for a tournament-grade board with staple-free bullseye wiring, which reduces bounce-outs. Buy a cabinet or a simple surround (£15-30) at the same time; without one, missed darts mark the wall and stray darts become a hazard. Mount the board so the bullseye sits 5ft 8in (1.73m) from the floor, with the oche 7ft 9.25in (2.37m) from the board face — get this wrong and the whole practice session teaches the wrong distance.
Spare shafts and flights
Starter price £3-12 per set
The cheapest parts, and the ones that change the feel of a dart the most, so try these before buying a new barrel. Wider standard flights slow the dart and lift the tail, which is more forgiving; narrow slim flights fly flatter and faster, which favours tight grouping once your release is consistent. Shorter shafts move the balance point forward; longer shafts flatten the trajectory. If darts keep tipping tail-up or feel underpowered, swap a £3 shaft before buying a £40 barrel.
Replacement points and tip protectors
Starter price £3-8
Steel points bend or blunt with regular use, especially against a well-worn board, and a bent point throws off grouping in a way that is easy to miss. A small pack of replacement points and a point sharpener or protector cover most of a season. Anyone practising two or three times a week should expect to check and occasionally replace points every few months.
Dart case
Starter price £8-25
Not urgent, but needed sooner than expected. A single barrel travels fine in the box it came in; once you're carrying spare flights, shafts and a second set, a proper case with separate compartments earns its keep. Darts loose in a pocket bend flights and blunt points, which quietly ruins the next session's feel.
Chalk/scoreboard and oche marker
Starter price £5-15
For anyone setting up at home rather than relying on a pub's electronic scorer. A wall-mounted chalkboard or whiteboard is the traditional way to track 501 scores between two players, and a strip of tape or a raised bar marks the oche at the correct distance. Neither is essential in a pub with house scoring, but both matter for consistent home practice.
Soft-tip set and electronic board (optional)
Starter price Set £15-30, board £80-250
Worth knowing about rather than an immediate purchase for most UK beginners. Soft-tip darts use a plastic point thrown at an electronic board that scores automatically and logs stats, the standard format in much of East Asia. A home electronic board costs £80-250 depending on features. Because UK pub culture and the PDC circuit run on steel-tip, most beginners have no practical need for this format unless they specifically want the tracked-stats, app-linked experience.
How to start
Play a casual game at the pub first
The first hurdle is not skill, it's showing up. Most British pubs still have a dartboard, and quieter early evenings on a weekday are the easiest time to ask if you can have a go. Start with a simple game like Round the Clock (hitting numbers 1 through 20 in order) rather than 501, since it needs no scoring knowledge and gives you a direct read on your accuracy from the first visit.
Tip Telling the regulars you're new is the single most useful thing you can say — pub darts culture generally welcomes beginners and someone will usually offer pointers on stance and scoring unprompted. Check the oche distance before you start: it's 7ft 9.25in from the board face, further than most people instinctively guess, and throwing from the wrong spot will make your first few visits feel worse than they are.
Buy your own set and settle a stance
House darts won't build a repeatable action. After three or four visits, once you have a feel for weight and grip, buy your own barrel — £20-30 is plenty for a first set bought and handled in person at a specialist shop rather than guessed at online. At the same time, settle on a stance: front foot pointed toward the board, standing side-on, three-quarter-on, or square, whichever keeps the same shoulder and elbow position throw after throw.
Tip Weight is the variable beginners fuss over most, but grip and knurling pattern matter more. Find a barrel your fingers neither slip on nor dig into, which you genuinely cannot judge from a photo. A front-loaded (torpedo-shaped) barrel is usually the easiest first choice, since the forward centre of gravity keeps the flight path stable while your release is still inconsistent.
Groove a repeatable release
The single biggest reason players stop improving is throwing differently every time. The goal at this stage is not accuracy but repetition: the same front-foot position at the oche, the same shoulder angle, the same number of fingers on the barrel, the same elbow height, and the same follow-through position after release. Early on, aim to group three darts inside single 20 rather than chase treble 20 — tight grouping in a big area teaches consistency faster than occasional hits on a small one.
Tip Darts scattering left and right is usually a foot problem, not a grip problem. Checking that your front foot lands in exactly the same spot as yesterday does more than endlessly adjusting your grip. Taping a foot marker to the floor while practising is a common fix. Also try holding your arm extended toward the target for a second after release rather than dropping it immediately — a collapsing follow-through usually means you're letting go of the dart rather than actually throwing it.
Learn 501 and doubles finishing
Round the Clock alone won't get you into a game. Learn to track a live countdown from 501 in your head, and learn the checkout routes for common leftover scores, since PDC-format legs must be finished on a double (or the bullseye, counted as double 25). The other common pub format is Cricket-style scoring around specific numbers, but 501 with double-out is the format that maps directly onto league and tournament play.
Tip Always confirm the finishing rule before a game starts. Casual pub games sometimes play straight-out, where any dart that brings the score to exactly zero ends the leg, which is a different skill from double-out. Practising double-out even in casual games avoids building a habit that won't transfer to a real league fixture. And do the subtraction in your head rather than relying on an electronic scorer's display — this is what eventually produces the instinct to leave a good double rather than just score points.
Build a practice routine and track your average
This is the point where simply throwing a lot and throwing to actually improve start to diverge. Track your three-dart average over a session — county-level amateurs typically sit in the 40s to 60s, a PDC tour-card holder needs an average in the mid-90s, and anything over 100 on television is an excellent match. Round the Clock and dedicated doubles practice (working around the board from double 1 to double 20) should be trained separately from scoring practice, since they test different skills.
Tip How long you throw in one sitting matters more for your elbow than how much you throw across a whole day. Grinding out 500 darts in one session is the single most common way beginners develop dart elbow within six months. Twenty to thirty minutes on, then a five-minute break, is far safer and keeps concentration sharper for longer. Fixating only on treble 20 is also less efficient than it looks — missing an 8mm-wide target repeatedly destabilises the release, which is why even professionals drop back to the more forgiving single 20 to settle their arm when their rhythm goes.
Join a pub team and enter your first tournament
The real proving ground in British darts is the local pub or county league, organised through your county darts association. Entry is usually just showing up to a club night and asking to be added to a team sheet; most pubs run a weekly team that plays other pubs in the area. From there, county ranking events and eventually PDC or WDF-affiliated open tournaments are the next rungs up. Amateur handicap events, which adjust for skill differences, are the easiest entry point for a genuine first competition.
Tip Most newcomers are undone by format, not skill, on their first competitive night. Confirm before you turn up whether the game is 501 or Cricket, straight-out or double-out, and whether there's a handicap system — asking these three questions in advance avoids the confusion of not knowing what to do on your own turn. Also expect to throw well below your practice average on a noisy match night; that's normal, and knowing it in advance makes the drop much easier to take.
Running costs
Figures reflect a major market and vary by place and year.
Common injuries and prevention
Dart elbow (lateral/medial epicondylitis)
The sport's signature injury. Darts repeatedly extends the forearm from a fixed elbow position, and throwing hundreds of darts a day loads the tendons on both sides of the elbow. Prevention comes down to three habits: capping practice sessions at 20-30 minutes with breaks rather than grinding out a huge daily total in one sitting; not increasing barrel weight by more than a couple of grams at a time, since pain often follows a sudden jump to a heavier dart; and keeping the grip light, since a tight grip forces the forearm muscles to over-tense on release. Once pain sets in, two weeks of rest usually resolves it faster than trying to throw through it with a different technique.
Shoulder impingement and rotator cuff strain
Darts holds the arm near shoulder height in a fixed aiming position for long stretches, which repeatedly pinches the tendons at the front of the shoulder joint, and this shows up more often when a home board is mounted too high. Prevention centres on keeping the shoulder down rather than hiked toward the ear while aiming, with the elbow held slightly below shoulder line and only the forearm moving. Long aiming pauses also load the shoulder, so if a shot is taking more than a few seconds, lower the arm and reset rather than holding the aim. Rotator-cuff strengthening with a resistance band twice a week helps prevent this over a season.
Lower back and neck strain
Darts' characteristic stance, leaning the torso forward at the oche and holding a side-on twist for extended periods, loads one side of the lower back and the side of the neck asymmetrically, and standing for hours at a pub session on top of that compounds it. Prevention is mostly about managing time rather than perfecting posture: stepping back from the oche every 30-40 minutes to stretch the lower back the opposite way, and sitting rather than standing while waiting for your turn. Leaning almost all bodyweight onto the front foot with the back heel raised is particularly hard on the lower back, so keep the back foot's toes in contact with the floor.
Dartitis (the yips)
Not a physical injury, but the most career-ending problem in the sport. At the moment of throwing, the hand freezes and cannot release the dart, or the release fires unpredictably. Eric Bristow suffered this at his peak in the mid-1980s and never won another world title, and Berry van Peer's 2017 case brought it back into public view. There's no agreed cure, but the practical guidance is consistent: don't over-focus on the exact moment of release, since symptoms often start in players who begin consciously monitoring when their fingers let go; don't chase a fix by changing equipment and grip weekly, since constant change removes any stable baseline; and build a rhythm-counting routine in practice rather than fixating on the score. If symptoms appear, the standard approach is to rest for a few weeks and rebuild the pre-throw routine from scratch rather than force through it.
In short, the first outlay for UK darts — a set, a board and a cabinet — comes to roughly £60-150, and most players spend nowhere near that to begin with, since a pub's house darts cover the first several visits for free. After that, the real ongoing cost is not equipment but the pub tab and league subs, typically £20-60 a season plus whatever you spend at the bar on a match night.
More than in most sports, how you manage the first few months decides whether you keep playing. Darts gives you a score even when you play alone, so it's entirely possible to throw for six months without meeting another player, and people on that path usually drift away quietly. By contrast, anyone who joins a pub team and plays a weekly fixture tends to stick with it for years. Whether the entry point is a pub night, a soft-tip bar in Asia, or the PDC broadcast on television, the road in always starts the same way: a beginner's Round the Clock, working steadily toward a 501 double-out.