Game on

January 15, 2012 9:10 AM

It's the BDO world championship final and the Guardian has The Joy of Six: darts the six best moments in darts history* which has a great anecdote about the Indoor League, a near legendary television programme.

Indoor League presented by 'Firey' Fred Truman ex England fast bowler, with a pint of bitter and pipe in hand, showed competitive matches of traditional pub sports with the likes of Buffalo Bill and Taffy John from Scunthorpe playing darts, skittles, shove ha'penny and bar billiards. More footage (1, 2, 3, 4) (Fantasy World Cup, TV Heaven) (Andrè Brasseur - 'Waiting For You', a instrumental version of which was used for the theme tune)

* Someone in the comments is kind enough to provide one of the worse... an example of: okay, a couple of drinks might take the edge off your nerves when you have you moment of glory on the big stage, but it's easy to go just a bit too far.

posted by fearfulsymmetry (16 comments total)

Relevant.
posted by yoink at 10:26 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]

That's great. So incredibly seventies, so incredibly British. Buffalo Bill of Scunthorpe!

Also, this is the part of Britain you STILL don't see on the BBC that often. It's mostly middle class people enjoying the beautiful countryside and obsessed about gardening and home cooking, as if all the working and lower middle classes living in the big cities do not exist.
posted by Harry at 10:30 AM on January 15 [1 favorite]

(Also, my darts question.. why is the bullseye not the thing you want to hit? Who decided that instead of the obvious target in the center, you'd have somewhere above it for maximum points?)
posted by Harry at 10:31 AM on January 15

why is the bullseye not the thing you want to hit?

Do not question the way of the arrows. It's all about trebles and doubles. As you saw from the NTNON sketch linked above.
posted by Decani at 10:41 AM on January 15

Also, my darts question.. why is the bullseye not the thing you want to hit? Who decided that instead of the obvious target in the center, you'd have somewhere above it for maximum points?

The bullseye would be the place to hit, if it had a triple ring - there is only a single bull and a double bull. So trip 20, trip 19, trip 18 and trip 17 are all more points. Double bullseye is the highest out-shout in 301 or 501, though.

Mugs away!
posted by Benny Andajetz at 10:44 AM on January 15

Thank's yoink mean't to post the NTNON sketch, but forgot in all the excitement (There's also the story of Jock Wilson's downfall but it's incredibly depressing)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:09 AM on January 15

I'm still working on my stability belt for proper darts playing, give it a few years.
posted by Artw at 11:31 AM on January 15

Here's the full segment from TV heaven, Telly Hell. A show where two English comedians talk about television has no right to be as good as that show often was.
posted by Grimgrin at 11:32 AM on January 15 [1 favorite]

The bullseye would be the place to hit, if it had a triple ring - there is only a single bull and a double bull. So trip 20, trip 19, trip 18 and trip 17 are all more points. Double bullseye is the highest out-shout in 301 or 501, though.

To be a bit more explanatory: They're playing 01 games, which start at some multiple of one hundred points plus one (501, 301, 801, whatever). The goal is to get down to exactly zero points in as few throws as possible (darts players take turns throwing hands, which are 3 darts each), ending on a double point throw -- the outer colored ring, more on that later. Thus, your best bet is to maximize the point value of each dart (at least in the beginning), so the best possible throw is triple 20 (for 60 points) and the best hand is worth 180. I believe the quickest out in is 6 darts in 301 (180 in the first hand then 60, 51 on a triple 17, 10 on a double 5 as an example).

Furthermore, I believe they're playing fly-in/double-out, which means they have to a double point segment on the last dart to reach 0 exactly (if they overshoot into negatives, the throw doesn't count). Fly-in here means they simply start deducting with their first dart, as opposed to "doubling in," which requires hitting a double-points segment to begin deducting points from your starting total.
posted by axiom at 11:49 AM on January 15

(if they overshoot into negatives, the throw doesn't count)

The whole turn is forfeit in this case, so if the first or second dart puts the player under 0, they lose the remainder of that turn.

As far as I know, all competitive darts is from 501.

I'm talking about darts on Metafilter.
posted by ceiriog at 12:10 PM on January 15

Once again, the BDO provides a significantly lower standard of play, but a much more thrilling final. Why is that?
posted by tigrefacile at 12:48 PM on January 15

Yeah those guys are playing 501 double out. It isn't particularly hard once you know all the combinations to leave yourself with a out you are comfortable with. 501 isn't common at in the US except in bar leagues.

The amazing thing is some of those guys are using those crap brass darts with the plastic flights that come with the board. Nowadays people play with machined tungsten darts, they are much heavier and much thinner.

I'm pretty competitive at bar sports, my team was second place in NYC dart league. A few years back I quit dart leafue to play APA pool. I've also attempted to start a big buck hunter league. I've always thought it would be great to have a show like this on cable. My vision is something along the lines of, a traveling group of bar sports champs (darts, pool, big buck hunter,golden tee) travel the country and challenge all comers. I think it would be great to expose Americans to "serious" darts, where people can actually hit what they are aiming at.
posted by Ad hominem at 2:53 PM on January 15

Now I am obsessed. I must play shove ha'penny. I am going to bring this sport to America. It is fucking perfect, compact, simple, but also requiring finesse. A perfect bar sport.
posted by Ad hominem at 3:51 PM on January 15

Fighting Talk (BBC Radio 5) just had a recent show from the BDO, unfortunately it's off their podcast feed but you should be able to find it on the FT316 page on FB.
posted by arcticseal at 11:07 PM on January 15

When I had a television, this is what I'd watch on Saturday afternoons. For me, it's all about the commentary. I play darts and it's a great game, but basically the same thing happens again and again-man throws three darts, another man throws three darts. Yet the commentators constantly come up with creative and sometimes bizarre things to say about each match. Even as an ex-Brit, I sometimes had to rewind to understand them, at times. There's a real grasping richness of expression in trying to find novel turns of phrase for so repetitive an activity.
posted by alltomorrowsparties at 12:15 AM on January 16

How I fell in love with darts
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:09 PM on January 16