DARTS, like some other minor sports in Zambia today, continues to face the wrath of operational challenges.
Although the sport has proved to be among those that can deliver honours to Zambia to a greater extent, its growth is crippled by the hostile environment in securing adequate finances to run programmes.
Worse still, the stigma surrounding the sport in Zambia has seen a few youths trooping to register for teams thereby confining Darts to just a cross section of society. The sport is popular among the senior citizenry in the country when it should cut across all ages in the actual sense.
Its presence is mostly in drinking places such as bars and clubs with elderly people being common features as parents are sceptical of allowing their children to visit such places in a bid to play Darts.
In principle, schools and communities are fertile grounds to grow and expand the sport at an early stage.
To conform to this code, the Zambia Darts Confederation (ZDC) has been working tirelessly to change the public perception of the sport and ensure that it attracts players of all ages across the country.
Samuel Zulu is the general secretary for the ZDC and he says: “We know that the sport is facing stigma from the public because many think that it is only for the drunkards but I think we have been trying our level best to promote it to the youths in the country.”
“As a way of strengthening the grassroots, we are targeting the schools because that’s where most of the young people are. Our various teams and clubs around the country have also taken particular interest in recruiting young people because they are the future for the sport.”
During the 2013 Zone Six Darts Confederation of Africa Youth Championships held in Lilongwe, Malawi, Zambia claimed seven medals that included silver and six bronze.
The boys’ team in the 13 and 15 years age group managed to finish in third place after accumulating 38 points in a round robin system, five behind eventual winners, Malawi, while Swaziland were runners up on 42 points.
At the same feat, the 16 and 18 years team scooped a silver medal and claimed bronze in the singles’ knock out event.
In recognition of Zambia’s commitment to the competitiveness of the sport in the region, the Zone Six Darts Federation recently honoured the Zambia national team for exemplary behaviour at the regional championship that was held in August in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
At the same championship, Zambia finished fifth in the men’s category while the women team was fourth position as Wilfred Siachibuye and Frank Chitankwa claimed the top scorer’s award after scoring over five 180s.
Over the years, passion and dedication have been the foundation and strength behind the organisation of darts in Zambia but there is need to deal with the challenges of today and introduce changes that will make Darts, contribute towards Zambia’s success in sport.
The confederation needs to step up its efforts to introduce the sport in all parts of the country with the involvement of Schools, Colleges and Universities as well as communities.
While strengthening of the grassroots is important, it is also vital to pay particular attention to promoting good administration skills by providing technical and management courses to the coaches and administrators.
The fact that few people know anything about darts in Zambia, should trigger the ZDC to go all-out in carrying out education campaigns across the country targeting institutions of learning while providing equipment and technical assistance.
The rules of the game, structures and how darts is governed should clearly be spelt out.
Once the technical knowhow and an understanding in the prospective players are established, the sport will attract more people and help in defusing the notion that pits darts as a sport for the drunkards.
If only the necessary tools are put in place, any ordinary person can become an expert in darts because the skill can be learnt and mastered.
Here is a brief look at the sport of darts.
Darts is a form of throwing game in which small missiles are thrown at a circular target (dartboard) fixed to a wall.
Although various boards and rules have been used in the past, the term ‘darts’, a traditional pub game,  usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules.
The dartboard is hung so that the centre of the bulls eye (the whole central part of the board or just the inner red or black section) is 1.73m high, while the distance from the board should be 2.37m from the face of the board.
Now the standard dartboard is divided into 20 numbered sections,
scoring from one to 20 points, by wires running from the small central circle to the outer circular wire. Circular wires within the outer wire subdivide each section into single, double and triple areas.
Various games can be played using the standard dartboard. However, in the official game, any dart landing inside the outer wire scores as follows:
• Hitting one of the large portions of each of the numbered sections, traditionally alternately coloured black and white, scores the points value of that section.
• Hitting the thin inner portions of these sections, roughly halfway between the outer wire and the central circle coloured red or green, scores triple the points value of that section.
• Hitting the thin outer portions of these sections, again coloured red or green, scores double the points value of that section. The double-20 is often referred to as double-top, reflecting the 20’s position on the dartboard.
• The central circle is divided into a green outer ring worth 25 points (known as ‘outer’, ‘outer bull’, or ‘iris’) and a red or black inner circle (usually known as ‘bull’, ‘inner bull’ or ‘double bull’),
worth 50 points. The term ‘bull’s ring’ usually means just the green outer ring. The inner bull counts as a double when doubling in or out.
• Hitting outside the outer wire scores nothing.
• Any dart that does not remain in the board until it is collected by the player (for example, a dart that hits a wire and bounces out of the board or drops out with the impact of a later throw) also scores nothing; exception when play is on any electronic board, darts falling out are counted.
• A dart only scores if its point is embedded in or is touching the playing surface. A dart that hits the board side on or at an angle but does not fall off because it is held in place by two other darts, for example, will score either equal to where its point touches or not at all.
The highest score possible with three darts is 180, commonly known as a ‘ton 80’ (100 points is called a ton), obtained when all three darts land in the triple 20.
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