The game of darts is hundreds of years old rumour has it that the sport originally began as a contest between bored soldiers / archers during respites from battle.

The soldiers threw short throwing spears into the upturned ends of wine barrels. As their competition progressed, a more critically marked target became necessary, which led to the use of a slice of a tree as a target.

The natural rings of the tree proved perfect for scoring purposes, as did the radial cracks which appeared as the wood dried out. The winter forced the game indoors, and shorter darts and basic indoor rules were adopted

In 1530 Anne Boleyn gave Henry VIII a set of "darts of Biscayan fashion, richly ornamented," these were not darts as we know them today but more of a small throwing spear.

There are a number of variations of lawn darts, including Traditional and Handly Cup Style. Either variation can be played one-on-one or in teams of two.

In the team version the players stand with one member from each team at each end (when throwing, they should be sure to stand well back when the other side is throwing) and toss the darts to a target about 11 m away.

In Traditional Lawn Darts, points are scored when a dart lands in the target area. Usually if a player from each team lands a dart in the target, the scores cancel each other (so if Team A got 2 darts into the target, and Team B got 1 in, Team A would get 1 point and Team B would get 0). Also, some versions of Lawn darts include a smaller "bulls-eye" ring for additional points.

In Handly Cup Style Lawn Darts, scores are based on darts in the ring plus darts closer to the ring than any of the opposing team's darts.

Darts landing inside the ring, or "ringers", are worth 3 points each, and can be cancelled by an opponent also throwing a dart into the ring.

Additionally, any dart that is closer to the ring (but outside) than any other dart by the opposing team is worth one point. This means that if neither team managed to place a dart into the ring, but Team A had two darts closer than any of Team B's darts, Team A would score 2 points.

If Team A had one dart in the ring, and one dart closer than any of Team B's darts, they would score 4 points. If both teams have darts in the ring it is impossible for a dart outside the ring to score any points (as it is farther from the ring than the opposing team's dart that is inside).

If Team A and Team B each had a dart inside the ring, and Team A also had a dart outside the ring but closer to the ring than Team B's other dart, neither team would score any points for that round.

Handly Cup Style matches typically are played in teams of two, with the pairs alternating, until one team's total score is 21 or more.