The dart games of Cricket and 501

There are loads and loads of dart games to play apart from the ubiquitous 501 and cricket. Some of the games invented for darts are peculiar to a local region like London 5's, which is played on a unique dart board as well. It only has 5, 10, 15 and 20 numbers on the board. Also there is the American Widdy Dart Board where a certain type of game called baseball is popular and the Widdy is one unique dart board, very different layout to the standard board. Lets stick to the games available for the standard dart board as there are more than enough games to play on that. Lets look at the rules for the standard games played on the dart board.

Cricket

Lets start with the game of Cricket; The cricket scoring board is marked as follows, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, B: The B on the card signifies the Bull. Before you can start scoring points, you must hit a number 3 times (or 1 treble or 1 double and a single); the number is then Open for you to score on, indicated by an O next to your name and thereafter every time you hit that number you score points toward your total with doubles and trebles scoring as normal as well. Your opponent however can stop you from scoring any more by also registering 3 hits on your number; the number is then marked with an X and takes no further part in the game. If you hit the number 20 5 times the number 20 is then open for you to score after 3 hits and you have scored 40 towards your total, indicated by an O by your name. When the other player also hits the 20 3 times the number 20 is closed, indicated by an X, and it is no longer available to score points with by either player, and game moves on to the other numbers. To win the game you must get more points than the other player and hit every number and Bull 3 times. (The centre bull is counted as a double and the outer bull a single) It can get very tricky to decide if you go for points or close out your opponents scoring numbers.

501

The game of 501 is one of the simplest games to play and is the game played in all the big money professional tournaments. Starting with a total of 501, your score is taken away from this total until you get down to 0. The finishing dart to the game must land in the double ring, (obviously corresponding to your score and so be an even number of 40 or smaller). The bust rule means that if you score more than you need or just one less than you need then you are "bust" and the score is voided for that turn. You start the next turn with the same score you had before. The dreaded scenario is to end up on double 1 and keep missing it. The double one finish is often called "Annie's House" for reasons lost in the mists of time.

301

This is basically a shorter version of 501, the difference being, most local rules dictate that you must start your scoring with a double as well as finish on a double.

There are more dart games than this of course, but knowing these basic games means you can get a game of darts virtually anywhere as most darters in the world will know these games at least.

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