Delaware’s summer bar scene is hitting full stride and the game of darts is helping drive weeknight crowds to bars across Delaware while continuing to grow Delaware’s dart community.

 

NEWARK — Whether it’s organized league play or smaller house leagues at local bars, darts has become a steady draw for bar patrons looking for a social night out or a competitive outlet to compete with or against their friends.

The game of darts traces its origin back to medieval times when English soldiers tried their hand at throwing their weapons in hopes of improving their aim, according to the Global Institute of Sport. Today the game has grown into a global sport with world rankings, multiple professional leagues and World Championship events.

In the United States, the American Darters Association (ADA) says about 17 million people are playing darts in locations all across the country. In Delaware, ADA reps Andrew Webber and John Cooke estimate about 100 dart players across the state — that they know of through the Delaware chapter of the ADA — play regularly. They said there are also more that play on a more occasional basis. 

Webber and Cooke took command of the Delaware chapter of the ADA in 2018 and now oversee all ADA activities in the state. The duo run league competitions year round, creating league formats for both singles, doubles and team competition in seasons spanning up to 22 week schedules. 

“Monday’s and Thursday’s are our in-house and then every other night there’s flex leagues, so people are playing seven days a week,” Webber said. 

They also run different events throughout the year, Webber said, including an online event every second Friday of the month allowing players to play from wherever they may be in the world through online connection. The duo said they run local blind draw events where players are randomly paired up when they enter the bar and blackout events in which they cover the board, essentially making the competitors fire blind. 

“A few years back on Black Friday we started a blackout event where we put bags over [the board] so you’re shooting blind,” Cooke said. 

“It’s cool,” Webber said. “Like [Cooke] said you cannot see the board at all.” 

The ADA league competitions in Delaware are all soft tip dart leagues — darts that are used on electronic boards — but Webber said the ADA offers competitions in both soft tip darts and steel tip darts — the traditional style of dart board.

Players play on multiple brands of dart boards and in multiple types of league competitions whether that be 501, cricket or some other competition format. Webber said Delaware has always used Radikal boards so players are normally most comfortable with those, but Bullshooter boards are the most popular and the most abundant. The Delaware chapter of the ADA runs leagues on both and most of their leagues are either 501 or cricket competitions.

The ADA organization started over 30 years ago in St. Louis and it has grown its reach to 30 states, according to the organization’s website. Delaware was a quick adopter of the ADA community, Webber said. Delaware ran ADA leagues pretty soon after the ADA was formed in 1990.

Webber and Cooke bought the Delaware chapter in 2018 and capitalized on the already established Delaware dart community to grow the league to a one time high of 128 teams, Webber said. 

“It’s been around here for a while, so that was pretty helpful,” Webber said. “But, they were pretty strict and only did certain nights, certain things. [Cooke] and I, we opened it all up.”

A big reason for their success is flex leagues, which allow players to schedule matches when it’s convenient for them. 

“So if I got to play you, I’m like hey let’s play on a Friday at ten o’clock at night, and okay let’s play. And that really has opened a door to a lot of leagues,” Webber said. 

Another reason the sport is growing — in Delaware and nationally — there aren’t many barriers to entry. Players interested in the sport don’t need to buy expensive equipment or train for years. Interested players just need some house darts and board to throw on to get started.  

“You don’t have to be like a super athlete,” Webber said. “It’s open to anybody.”

That also includes youth. Webber said their league is open to anyone as long as they can get into a bar or restaurant that has the correct specifications for competition. Cooke said he and his son — who turns 21 in September — shoot at Birdie’s Links and Drinks in Middletown on Monday nights. 

“I think that’s a big draw too is that youth can play,” Webber said. “One of my first events back in 2019, I went out, I got beat by a 13-year-old girl. She just destroyed me.”

The ADA is a welcoming environment for dart players of every skill level including those just coming out for fun or those that want to compete on a more competitive level. The organization runs two types of leagues: a handicap league and an open league, Webber said. The handicap league allows players of lesser ability a leg-up against better competition, starting a competitor at 350 instead of 501 in their race to zero for instance. The open league is a straight up battle between the two opponents. 

“The handicap [league’s] real popular with the casual player because who cares if you’re good or not? You’re just, you’re there to have fun anyway,” Webber said.

The word fun was a key part of Webber and Cooke’s vocabulary when describing the dart community in Delaware. The two said the community is small, but extremely tight knit and entertaining. Webber and Cooke were the perfect snapshot of their description, poking fun at each other while answering questions and describing their experiences. 

“There’s lots of jabbing in darts,” Webber said after poking fun at Cooke’s recollection of losing to his son at an ADA competition in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. Webber added that in addition to good-natured linguistic jabbing, “darters are known to drink” as well.

The ADA partners with local bars and restaurants all throughout the state including Christiana Pub, Rackers, Birdie’s Links and Drinks, Mispillion River Brewing and others. The bars pay the ADA a host fee and in return they’re guaranteed weekly business from darters coming in to play their matches.

“I’ve always guesstimated by like week two of a league they’ve covered their host fees for the whole season,” Cooke said. 

The guaranteed business is especially convenient in the summer months.

“The bars love it during the summer because business sucks,” Webber said while laughing in a lighthearted way. 

The ADA isn’t the sole outlet for darts in Delaware. Some bars run their own leagues or throw nights to drum up business, and in southern Delaware, there is the Sussex County Dart League that fields 13 teams in multiple divisions. Their seasons start in the fall and runs through the spring, according to their website.

Delaware darters have carved out a place amongst Delaware’s bar culture. Whether its coming in for a bar’s throw night or participating in one of the ADA’s many league offerings, Delaware darters created a community for those interested in the sport amongst the bar ecosystem.  

“It’s our own community,” Cooke said.

“It’s entertaining. It’s fun,” Webber said. “We keep growing. We try to express that to the players like, we need new players. We always need new players so bring a friend in, bring family in, let’s just keep growing.”

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