Darts went from soldiers' downtime to the pub, from the pub to the telly, and from the telly to sold-out arenas, without ever losing the bit where your mate goes bust on double 1.
The most-told origin story: English archers and soldiers passing time by throwing shortened arrows at the bottoms of barrels and slices of tree trunk. The wood's growth rings and drying cracks divided the target into sections, the great-grandparent of the modern board.
Lancashire carpenter Brian Gamlin is traditionally credited with the board's numbering, 20 flanked by 1 and 5, 19 next to 3 and 7. The layout deliberately punishes wild ambition: aim big with a loose arm and the board hands you pennies.
Like much early darts history it's part legend. Gamlin died before ever confirming it, which feels about right for a pub game.
Pub landlord “Foot” Anakin is summoned before Leeds magistrates, where games of chance were banned in pubs. He has a board brought into the courtroom, hits exactly what he calls, and invites the clerks to try. Case dismissed: darts is officially skill, not luck, and legal in every pub in the land.
Standardised boards, breweries running leagues, and from 1927 the News of the World Championship, eventually drawing hundreds of thousands of entrants. By the late thirties, a visiting King George VI and Queen Elizabeth famously threw darts on a tour stop, and the game had the royal nod.
Organised darts goes professional: the British Darts Organisation forms in 1973, and 1978 brings the first World Championship, won by Wales' Leighton Rees. Television falls in love with the drama, close-ups, big checkouts and bigger characters.
Eric Bristow, the “Crafty Cockney”, wins five world titles and becomes a household name. Darts-themed quiz show Bullseye pulls huge Sunday audiences. Every pub in Britain has a board, a ladder league and a resident hustler.
In the early nineties the top players break away to form what becomes the PDC, fighting for TV money and a bigger stage. The gamble pays off spectacularly: bigger venues, walk-on music, and the era of Phil “The Power” Taylor, 16 world titles, the greatest of all time.
Sixteen-year-old Luke Littler reaches the World Championship final and breaks darts viewing records, pulling a whole new generation to the oche. Junior academies fill up nationwide, including, soon enough, one in Colchester.
Six centuries after the first arrows hit a barrel bottom, The Boardroom opens at 71 Crouch Street, eight oches, a pro shop and an academy. The next chapter gets written by whoever's on lane four this Saturday. Read our story →
Every name in that timeline started with a first wobbly dart. Yours is waiting on Crouch Street.