Customer Reviews

All About Darts: America's most complete and up-to-date book on the game of darts

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

It's remarkably deceptive that this 1977 book has "America" and "up-to-date" in its subtitle, for it is neither a book for or by Americans, nor is it up to date. Why isn't copyright date listed on Amazon site???

The most popular game in America is Cricket. Not covered--only the '01 games. Cricket was pretty much unheard of in Britian (home of authors) in 1977 And what of all of the innovations in darts of the last 20 years? Brass darts were the standard in 1977! Since 1977... Tungsten, retractable tip darts, electronic darts, sucken-wire dartboards, hundreds of new tournaments in US and internationally, the hundreds of web sites devoted to darts....and much, much more.

And not just lack of information, but misinformation. For instance, in 1977, at the time of their writing, official throwing distances were different around the world (they state 8' most of the time). The official international distance is 7' 9 1/4"--established in 1979 by BDO and ADO, after this "up-to-date" book was written (20 years ago!)...Valuable information, as well as virtually all names, organizations, etc. are 20 years out of date... Again, this book is certainly, and demonstrably, NOT America's most complete and up-to-date book on darts.

This book should have gone out of print years ago.

I own several books on the game of darts, and this is the best one. It is chock full of humorous comments, informative sidebars, charts, figures, hand drawings, and examples. The rules for the games were easy to follow and it lists 23 of them including Cricket. The tips on how to play well, and practice effectively were good. It included several practice routines in addition to the games. And most welcome were the frequent charts showing how an average, expert or pro darter would perform on the various games or feats.

I read the book cover to cover and thoroughly enjoyed the author's writing style and frequent application of humor.

NOTE: The review that blasts the 1977 version of the book should be ignored, as the the 1986 update to the book addressed all the complaints. Cricket is listed, the 7' 9 1/4" throwing distance is clearly listed, etc.

The only thing worthwhile about this book is a few laughs here and there... darts wise, it's better to go to a bar and learn it from there,

Since every review seems to consider this either an excellent or a terrible book. I just wanted to add a comment. If you are primarily a cricket fan, then you will probably hate this book. The authors are English, and cricket is not a game of much interest accross the pond. I bought this book over 30 years ago, the 1975 version, and I found it extremely helpful for developing an out strategy for 01. The authors don't simply give you an out chart and tell you to memorize the chart. They discuss options based on the likelihood that you don't hit the triple, but you hit the single. As an example you have 126 left and your opponent is on or close to a double. Most out charts would suggest shootine T20 which would leave 66 then T14 which leaves D12 for the win. As an alternative the authors would suggest that this first dart should be shot at T19 which would leave 69, and then stay on T19 which would leave D6. Why would you do this? If the first attempt at T19 was a single, that leaves you with 107. You have two darts left and you still have a chance to win in this turn, T19 then Double Bull. If you get the first T19, but you hit a single 19 with your second dart, you still can win with a Double Bull. As the authors say it's a double sometimes you need to shoot it. Granted you are not going to hit Double Bull for the win very often, but at least you have a chance to win before your opponent can shoot at a double. This book helped me develop my out strategy. When I am playing in the league, I never look at the out chart because I know the numbers and the alternative strategies. These authors showed the way to develop a proper out strategy. Granted they don't discuss every possible alternative, but they at least get you to think about these alternatives.

For the person just learning about darts, this is an ideal book. There are several variations of dart games listed here, and many of them rely more on luck than skill. Therefore, for people not entirely serious about dart playing, they will find many of these games more interesting and fun than the more traditional games.

This book is perfect for the beginner, but probably won't be of much value to serious dart player.

This book was so bad it doesn't rate a text review only to say save your money. Nothing can be learned from this book for a beginner or anyone else