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The love of pub darts is being kept alive by two collectors named Patrick. Andrew Burnyeat reports
When the King and Queen dropped in on Slough Community Centre for a game of darts in 1937, the event made the front pages of many of the national dailies.
More importantly, darts had taken off as a national pastime.
Many people assume that, because darts is such a simple game, it has been around for ages. Although there are historical echoes stemming from archery, the modern game was only codified less than 100 years ago. It wasn’t commonly played in pubs until the 1920s.
Darts historian Patrick Chaplin (pictured top left) says: “At the time, theatres and early cinemas were springing up. All of a sudden the pub had competition. So brewers and publicans looked at ways to keep customers entertained. Darts did that for them.” Another assumption is that darts was always a working class game. Not so, says Chaplin: “It started as an upper class game, just like cricket, rugby and football. It was the rich who codified it. It wasn’t uncommon in the 1930s to see invitations to Darts and Dancing evenings in Mayfair.” By this time, although darts was still played by the upper classes, working class people in pubs had taken up the game with a passion.
Except in Huddersfield, where the authorities banned it for reasons of public health.
And the Burgh Licensing Court in Glasgow in 1939 decided to ban ‘all kinds of games’ on the grounds that they encouraged drunkenness and ‘ne’er do wellism.’ Patrick Chaplin has been studying and writing about the history of darts for many years and is.....
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By Andrew Burnyeat
Section : Collector's corner
Page number : 57
