How To Play Pub Friendly Darts

If you manage to find a pub with a dart board left in your town, then you must learn quickly how to play pub friendly darts.

Playing darts creates a friendly, sociable atmosphere, and may even attract new friends to your group, who have dart playing in common.

There are several pub friendly dart games, that are easy to play, fun for guys and girls, and can become nicely competitive, as your game improves week on week.

1. 501 and 301

Each player chalks the board with a column and 501 or 301 at the top. The number you all start with will get smaller as you deduct points scored on the dart board. The good thing about this game, is that even amateur players can score points. The inner bullseye is worth 50, the outer 25; each black or white is worth the number on the section, with the inner ring treble that, and the outer ring, double that. You can quickly see that the highest score on the board you can get at any one time is treble 20. If you throw 180, that's a perfect score.

To end 501 or 301, the last dart you throw must be a double entry, or outer ring throw. So the lowest score you can throw for is 2 - double 1. If you bust your score reverts to the previous amount. That goes for all throwing for their last double. To take a random example, if you had 8 left and were throwing for a double 4, if you hit a 3 in the black and white area, your score would reduce to 5. In the same situation, if you hit a 19, you would bust. Next round, you would still be throwing for double 4.

World Matchplay Darts is based on 501, so if you try this game you are playing an internationallly recognised sport.

2. Round The Clock or Round The World

The dart board has 20 sections. The player who throws the lowest dart goes first. Players throw from 1, 2, 3 ... 20 and must hit the sections consecutively. Finishing is up to you. More experienced players use this as a warm up, and might make double 20, triple 20, and a bullseye/centre circle throw the final winner.

3. Cricket

Now that you have attracted more players to your regular dart night out, Cricket is best played in two teams of between 2-4 players. One team bats, one team bowls. The bowling team are aiming for wickets each throw. A wicket is achieved by hitting the outer bullseye, and two wickets are achieved by hitting the bullseye. Just like cricket, when 10 wickets are scored, the batting team is all out.

The batting team are trying to score runs. Runs can only be scored from the inner triple ring, to the outer double ring. If a player lands between the inner ring and bullseye sections, one wicket away is given to the bowling team. Scoring runs means to hit a triple score, double score or single score in the larger circle section of the board. Missing the board or hitting the black rubber also results in a wicket penalty. You can see that the difficulty lies in scoring highly. Doubles and triples risk giving wickets away to the bowling team.

Once the batters have a team score, and are all out, the teams swap over so that the bowlers have a target number of runs to achieve, before they are bowled out. This means that one innings has been played. Players can add variations based on cricket as they see fit.

The Last Word

Pub darts are a great idea if you regularly sink a few beers at your local pub. It will get you on your feet, moving around, which is great for fitness. Why sit and consume alchohol mindlessly when you can still have a boys night out, with a bit more focus? No wonder darts is considered a sport!