A Promotional DartBoard.

Before the presentation night at the end of last season, I strayed into a local pub where I don’t regularly play darts, but one of my friends does and was told a tale about how the new Landlord who had recently taken over, was doing up the pub and creating a new dart room. The room with the old darts oché in had an unfortunate pillar next to the oché and a large TV only a few feet away that always seemed to be on with football showing. The new set up was to be in a room where the pool table was and although was only small would give a much better throw. After the pool table had been removed and the room was finished my friend escorted me in to see what I thought of the new throw as he was considering moving our team back to the pub. I squared up to the oché with my darts in hand and nearly had convulsions. It was a lovely clear set up compared to the old, but the Landlord had used a promotional board that he had found in his cellar. The board was brand new with bright shiny wires and alternating bright GREEN and white segments with a GREEN edge to the board. The trebles and doubles alternated green and red as well, as they should. The overall effect was quite off putting.
My immediate reaction was that he would have to change the board before any matches could be played on it as it wasn’t regulation colour and everyone would object. So, I offered to buy the board from the Landlord thus enabling him to put up a regulation board. It was my intention to give the unusual board to the league Secretary on the coming presentation night as around the oché in his pub he had a collection of boards displayed up on the walls. However, for some reason, the Landlord wouldn’t part with the colourful board and it was left up.

Some months later my team went into the local pub with the new oché for our league match as visitors and found ourselves playing on this green board. Admittedly the brightness of the green had faded considerably and was now very dull making it look much more normal, but a few months earlier I never thought any matches would be played on it all. Years before this, I had seen such a board up in a Rugeley club, but no matches were ever played on it though. The League Secretary of this league didn’t seem bothered by my complaint on the night of our match, but then again it was his home board!

I am not “Colour Prejudiced,” (Link To Article) but I do think dartboards used in matches should be of the regulation colours.
The incident reminded me of a night I was told happened many years ago involving one of the leagues “Super Stars.” The said player had walked into a pub for his match – took one look at the tatty board at the end of the oché and said, I am not playing on that!” With that he had turned and walked out of the pub only to return moments later with a brand new dartboard that he had fetched from his car. He put it up on the wall, played his match and then took it down again before going home!
Super Stars like him may carry new dartboards around with them, but with my standard of play I only carry boxes of chalk with me, so unfortunately I couldn’t replace the offending board the other night at my match.