by Eileen Hughes

Created on: March 24, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I found the best part of playing darts is the competitive challenge and drive the game brings into your life. You would expect the more you play the more efficient you become, that is not the case. All competitions bring different challenges; your game on the night/day could depend on your state of mind. The team you play may be champion players up against weaker players. Nerves will play a part in your game that was my downfall. The harder I tried the worse I played.

Pressure brings a challenge in good and bad players. It is what drives you to play better, pushing yourself to meet that next challenge. I found playing darts to be a great way to meet and make wonderful friends around the countryside as you travel to different towns and new competitions.

Where you play

There is no limit to the places that you can play darts. Playing competition or social darts could take you anywhere in the world, depending on your competitiveness. You may play at the local hotel, club, friends place, or even in your own back yard. The where is not as important as the game itself? A game played between two people socially or with a team, will still give the players great enjoyment and pleasure. Personally, I loved going away for the weekends to play competition games.

Type of Dart Board

There are many types of Dart Boards. The electronic ones do the hard work for you, by making the decisions, whether dart has scored or not, it even adds the score for you. Most of the competition dartboards are made from sisal, which is natural rope fiber. The fibers then compressed together, and bound with steel. They paint them with the appropriate colors and staple the wires and numbers to the board. When the number twenty and nineteen shows wear, they remove numbers and turn it around to a less worn part at the top.

Types of Darts

Like every sport, there are many varieties of darts, heavy, light, long, or short. There are different types of flights, some use feathers, and many variations of soft, hard or flexible plastic. The bodies of the darts also vary from player to player; some prefer nickel, brass, or tungsten. I played with a Tungsten shaft of medium thickness and a weight of 22g.

Favorite Dart Games

Different dart games depend on the players. When playing competition, we normally played 501, for teams and doubles, then 301 for the singles games. Social games we played around the board, starting with a double, then throwing a one, and ending with the twenty-five and then a bull's eye. Occasionally

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