|
|
- The first
man to sell matched sets of brass darts was a Hungarian salesman of
boiler linings named Frank Lowy. He went on to found Unicorn darts,
still the largest darts manufacturers in the world.
- In November
of 1989, Tony Jones recorded 28 perfect 180 scores in just one hour
and 25 minutes for a charity event in Manchester, England.
- An
impressive 7-man superstar line up consisting of Bob Anderson, Eric
Bristow, John Lowe, Chris Johns, Martin Phillips, Alan Warriner, and
Ritchie Gardner established a 15-minute fast-scoring mark of 8,806
points in a charity throw at the 1988 British Professional
Championships.
- Big Cliff
Lazarenko fired his first 9-dart perfect 501 game at an exhibition at
the Aberlynon Leisure Centre. Using 25-gram titanium tungsten darts,
he threw two 180s and a T20, T19, D12 for the 141 out in the last
match of the night.
- Paul Lim of
San Bernadino, Calif. threw a perfect 9-dart 501 leg at the 1990
Embassy World Championships. Because he did it before the TV cameras
he received £52,000 ($88,000 US) for his remarkable achievement.
- Some dart
players in England think throwing darts can get boring, so they take
some six inch nails and use them instead. Joe Hitchcock used to love
to beat "the champs" in this fashion. One of his favorite
tricks was to "nail" a button from between someone's
outstretched fingers.
- The late Jim
Pike, a darts legend in England before most of you even threw one, was
such a marksman that he could shoot a cigarette from someone's mouth
with a dart - AND STICK IT IN ANY DOUBLE.
- The average
speed of a dart hitting a board is around 64kph (40mph).
- London,
1937. The late and great Jim Pike went around the board on doubles,
retrieving his own darts, in the time of 3 minutes 30 seconds. He did
this shooting from the old distance of 9 feet.
- Can you
score more than 180 with 3 darts? - Turn 16 to the top of the board
and it becomes 91. Three triples give you 819.
- At an
exhibition match at the Gipsy Stadium, in England, in July 1977,
Muhammed Ali faced former Welsh champ Alan Evans. With Evans scoring
only on triples, Ali won hitting a bullseye on the way out and
immediately proclaimed himself darts champion of the world.
- On February
21st., 1989, at Buckingham Palace, London, Eric Bristow became the
first dart player to receive the coveted Member of the British Empire
award (M.B.E.). Mr. Bristow admitted he was nervous meeting the queen,
saying, "It was more nerve-racking than any TV final." This
gives him the right to have the letters M.B.E. present after his name.
- In June of
1978, All-World John Lowe captured a 1001 leg in 22 darts:
140-180-140-100-140-140-125-D18. John averaged 137 per throw or a
grand 45.6 per dart en-route to this memorable game.
- Pat Irwin of
the Mitre hotel, playing in a double start/double finish 501 match,
hit a 170 in (Dbull-60-60) and a 170 out (60-60-Dbull) in the same
leg, in April of 1987.
- Probably the most notable individual effort occurred
on October 13, 1984 in the quarter-finals of the MFI World Matchplay
Championships. The match featured British stars John Lowe and Keith
Deller with Lowe hitting the first televised nine-dart perfect 501
game in the history of the sport. For the record he went: 180-180-141
and collected (eventually) a cheque for 102,000 pounds for his
efforts. (Ironically, due to complex tax laws, Lowe could not pocket a
penny from the jackpot until two years later, as the currency sat in a
British bank waiting for final approval.)
- Dartboards
are made from compressed biscuits of African sisal.
- The maximum
allowable weight and length for a dart is 12 inches and 50 grams.
- In the
British Dart Organization (BDO), Indian Sikhs are exempt from the rule
forbidding headgear.
- In 1896,
Brian Gamlin, a British carpenter, arranged the numbers on the
dartboard as we see them still today.
- Eric Bristow
got his nickname "The Crafty Cockney" not from his accent,
as some may think, but from a T-shirt he picked up in a California
darts pub.
|