Darts: A Beginners Guide   by Corrie Duana

I guess every one of you is familiar with the game of darts. You probably have a friend who loves to play dart or you probably have played it once or twice. Well, darts is a fun social game that has been around for centuries. It is popular in almost every corner of the world as many people played it in tournaments and leagues. And, its continuing popularity shows it to be a sport that holds talent, skill, and even a bit of luck combined into one.
The Early Days
The game of darts began as training in the martial arts, particularly on the martial art of archery. It was born in the Medieval England where archery teachers shortened some arrows and have their students throw them at the bottom of an empty wine barrel. It is thought that the soldiers at that time took their shortened arrows with them to the local drinking establishment to exhibit their skill in shooting the arrows as well as to have fun at the same time. And, when the base of wine barrels proved to be inconvenient or in short supply, many of the imaginative darters brought in a cross-section of a moderate sized tree to serve as a "board".
The early darts board was noted to have featured some rings on it, and when it dried out the cracks gave further segmentation. It is actually this cracked and dried board that started to evolve into what is known today as the current darts board.
The sport of darts was not only enjoyed by the lower classes in the Medieval England. In fact, the oft married Henry VIII was reputed to enjoy darts extremely. It was with his great passion in darts that Henry VIII was given by Anne Boylen a beautiful ornate dart set.
Dart Enters America
The root of darts in America can be traced back to the pilgrims where the hardy colonizers were reputed to have played the game on the Mayflower as it made its ocean crossing. Since that time, dart was played and very much enjoyed in America whenever spare time was available. However, the coming of darts in the American continent remained largely as an Anglo-American sport until the beginning of the Victorian Age when darts was introduced worldwide by the great expansion of the British Empire. Since the expansion, the game of darts was exposed to the people and the native population even found great enjoyment in it.
The Game of Darts Today
Around 1900, the rules of darts were revised into what it is today. Certain standards of the game were set. In fact, the size of the dart board, the throwing distance, and even the size of the darts were standardized. And, as more and more people came to enjoy the sport of darts around the cosmos, a number of teams were then organized. Professional darts leagues came to emerge and even populate the world, and it is these teams that play darts for trophies nowadays.
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About the Author
Corrie Duana writes for SportsArticles.com, a site full of helpful insight about Extreme Sports and Martial Arts.

Are Traditional Family Games a Thing Of The Past?
 by: John GIbb

 Board games have evolved massively over the years. As a child my memories of board games were Monopoly, Draughts, Cluedo, Guess Who and many many more. All games that we could play as a family to pass the time away. Hours of fun was had by all.

My favorite game was Monopoly a game that give me an insight to Real Estate (ironically enough, I now have a career as an Estate Agent). Is that a coincidence or did my childhood obsession with Monopoly play on by subconscious?

Many Sunday afternoons were spent with my four sisters playing, or should I say rowing over this fabulous game. The first row would normally be about who would like to be the iron, shoe, car etc (these were the items that you had to chose from to represent you on the board as you played). My favourite was always the dog!

The next row would be about who went first, and then the next would be about who would play the role of the Banker.

Finally the game would begin, and how much fun we had. Hours and hours of fun week after week.

How things have changed? Today, whilst we still have the old traditional Board games, and I guess we always will, Games are far more advanced, and are often played on computers, or via DVD Players using your Television sets.

You can now play a board game on your own against a Computer (who will act as your opponent) as opposed to playing with friends and/or family. I find this quite sad, especially knowing how much fun we had as children interacting with each other, and observing each other as we rowed over such meaningless but then important issues.

I now see my own nephews spending hours on their own in front of a computer playing games without any physical human interaction, whilst their parents get on with other things. I guess one advantage is that if you are an only child you don’t miss out on not playing games just because you had no-one else to play it with you. The Traditional games such as monopoly can now be played on a computer and the Computer can act as your opponent. You can even set what level of difficulty you want to play at.

The disadvantage to this, in my opinion is that the family getting together and interacting with each other seems to be a thing of the past.

About The Author
John Gibb is the author of Boardgames-sources.info.

For more information on boardgames please check out http://www.Boardgames-sources.info