101 Reasons Why I Love the Darts

The magic of the oche is legendary and with a global audience of millions darts is a sporting juggernaut which always delivers entertainment and drama. The game exploded in the 1980s thanks to Eric Bristow and friends and since the golden days of the Crafty Cockney, darts has been blessed with larger-than-life heroes like Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen and lately teenage tyro Luke “The Nuke” Littler. The first ever World Darts Championship in 1978 was just the start of the sport’s incredible story and despite its proud but humble roots in pubs and clubs up and down the country, darts has now spread its wings from Sunderland, Solihull and Southend as far afield as Singapore, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. There are countless reasons why everyone on the planet loves the darts and here are 101 of the best–and funniest–of them.

Iain Spragg is an experienced sportswriter with over 30 books under his belt and, after 25 years of consistently failing to hit his doubles at his local, a deeply frustrated darts player. He lives in north London just down the hill from Alexandra Palace and is the author of Wayne Mardle’s acclaimed book Hawaii 501: Life as a Darts Pro.