Brief History

Darts is one of the oldest established English pub games which, since the late 1970s, has become one of the most popular sports in the world. As far as the origins of the game are concerned, javelins, crossbow bolts and archery have all been considered. Of these the most likely scenario is that the game has its roots in archery. Indeed, glance back to the earliest type of dartboards and you will see that these were concentric targets – miniature forms of the archery target. Moreover, darts is most commonly known as ‘arrows.’ Some would say that these two points alone are sufficient to confirm our sports heritage. Up until the early part of the 20th century, darts existed in disparate forms across parts of England, the only matches taking place being either ‘in-house’ or friendly matches between pubs which were close to each other. Source:source