123 Ways to Play Darts Ebook Tooltip Ebooks kunnen worden gelezen op uw computer en op daarvoor geschikte e-readers.

It's said that the game of darts has been around since the Middle Ages. Soldiers of the time who were bored between battles, had contests. They threw short spears or possibly arrows into the ends of a tipped over wine barrel. Eventually, a slice of tree was used as a target. The rings in the tree made scoring much easier. As the slice dried out, lines formed similar to the lines that separate the numbers of a modern board.

In the winter, the game was brought indoors. The arrows were shortened, and darts gained popularity. It became so popular that in 1530 Anne Boleyn gave King Henry VIII a set of beautifully decorated darts. Can you imagine King Henry holding a mug of beer and throwing darts? Hopefully, he wasn't a sore loser! I can see him now "Off with his head...who's next!"

In 1886 a man by the name of Brian Gamlin devised the numbering order of the modern dart board. He designed it in a way that it would cut down on the number of 'lucky shots' and take away the element of chance.

At the time there were laws in England that prohibited games of chance in public houses. In 1908 a pub owner named William 'Bigfoot' Anakin was accused of operating games of chance. The court attempted to prosecute him for allowing darts in his pub. He got permission from the court to set up a dart board in the courtroom. They say that he threw 3 darts all of which hit the 20. He then challenged any magistrate to do the same. There were no court officials that could. So, it was ruled that darts is not a game of chance, but a game of skill. The case was dismissed.

Because of 'Bigfoot Anakin's' skill in closing the 20's in 1 round, laws were eventually changed, and darts developed into the game we know today. When I first read this story, it inspired me to develop an extreme game of skill, which I named after him.