Harish and Ranjini are enviably settled, into their house in Bangalore. Quixo from Gigamic, or Six from Dr Wood were my first choices as house warming gifts that would promise hours of stimulating game play. Sadly, both recently introduced titles are determinedly out of stock. Walking through one of my favourite book stores, I chanced upon a 15”x1/2” double-sided dart board from Unicorn Products, England, predictably manufactured in China!
Lead a layperson to a dart board and chances are they’ll naively immediately fling darts towards the bulls-eye. A quick run through of the rules of the most universally played ‘Tournament Darts’ is an eye-opener. A few rounds later, I realise my delight in being able to land three darts on the board in the vicinity of the bulls-eye meant nothing. Just off the bulls-eye (50) and the 25 ring, I scored a miserable 1, 5 and 3! Thin point-based wedges extend from the periphery of the board to the 25 ring. The unattainably narrow doubles ring (2x score) on the outer periphery gives you a double score. A similar ring further into the board racks up a 3x score. Once you start consciously targeting a particular score, or a specific section of the board, you realise the embarrassing gap between intention and reality!
A two-player game typically starts with 301 points per player. The method of scoring is to subtract each score from the remaining total. Winning requires you to reduce your score to exactly zero. It’s not just aim that’s a problem. It’s just figuring out how to consistently hit the same spot that’s an unfathomable mystery. Tournament Darts is not an aim-and-throw, and add up the total score affair. There’s much strategy involved to ensure you rapidly drop your points. Agility at mental math is essential. By the third round, one is struggling to keep track of the cumulative totals, let alone subtracting them from the 301 start-up points.
Unicorn’s dart board turned out to be a great buy. Harish fears it’s addictive. And is equally fearful of what wayward throws might do to his newly-painted wall. The board comes with six magnificently and genuinely dangerous steel darts. Ensure friends and family are well clear before you line up to throw!
The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com [1]
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