Diamond Wire Dart Boards

For the last two or three years the Weston & Trent Valley Darts League has given every pub represented in the league a free dartboard. Last Autumn we were forced to buy the boards from a different source and as a consequence we decided to buy “Razor Wire Boards.” We found out that these were a cheaper brand of “Diamond Wire Boards” that would normally have been far more expensive than the previous years, but our Treasurer, Tony Hall, persuaded the supplier to do a deal on the quantity so we only paid a couple of pounds more, for each of them.

The boards we received were undoubtedly much better made than the previous years as during last year we had several complaints from people who had cut their fingers or hands on the rough exposed wires and their fittings. The better quality can be put down to the fact that diamond wire boards are seen as an up market product for which the manufacturer can get a better price, (anything up to 2X the price) so, with an inflated price there is room to improve the general quality.

Diamond wire boards have wires separating the segments that are, as the name suggests, diamond shaped with the diamond pointing out of the board instead of a round wire. The theory is that a dart hitting the wire will always hit the wire at an angle with the dart horizontal (i.e. 90 degrees to the board) thus causing the dart to deflect into the board instead of striking the wire more flatly and bouncing out. In practice however, darts don’t strike the board at 90 degrees but approach it on a trajectory describing an arc. This means that the angle of the point when it hits the upper part of the wire may well be closer to a right angle thus causing the dart to bounce out. Admittedly if the point of the dart hits the lower half of the wire it is more likely to be deflected inwards.

As a consequence of all this, some people are convinced that they prevent bounce outs and others believe that they can actually cause them. Whatever your opinion the quality of the boards is undoubtedly superior to the standard cheaper match-boards available. Hopefully, funds permitting, you will get another chance to judge for yourselves when the league presents every pub with another free board this coming Autumn.