Stroke and Release

Back in the mid-’80s, darts were huge in Kansas City. Then technology came along and changed everything.

“There used to be dart bars everywhere. There was even a league team in Lawrence,” says Bill Pittman, a Kansas City firefighter and darts organizer. “The electronic dartboards have taken a number of players from the steel-tip leagues.”

The plugged-in dartboards — with their wider rings and scorekeeping computers — stole the soul of a game spawned by English archers who wanted to bring their arrows out of the cold and into the pub.

“I guess it’s personal preference, really,” Pittman says, trying not to offend any new-school soft-tip throwers. “Or maybe I’m just old-fashioned. It’s more of a skill challenge. With the steel darts, you have to have a chalker keeping score, and there’s more mathematical strategy involved.”

Could the electronic boards be the sole reason for the decline of steel-tip and bristle-board dart throwing?

“Steel-dart games can go long,” Pittman notes from his post at Fire Station No. 30, not far from the dartboard he has brought in for practice. “Darts usually take place in bars, drinking beer. Not to say that you can’t throw darts and not drink. People just don’t like to be out that late, so they switch to the soft-tip league. They can play the same amount of games, but with less legs per game.” And less math, too.

Not that Pittman has dropped out of the dart scene. He still throws three nights a week in singles, doubles and team games when tournament play heats up in the winter. But he mostly stays in the bars on the far eastern side of town, so there are lots of competitors from other parts of Kansas City he rarely sees — until the annual Woody Dart Tournament rolls around.

This Saturday, Pittman will wake up early to get the Premier Sports Bar & Grill ready for the Tenth Annual Woody Dart Tournament. First he’ll cover up all the cursed electronic boards. Then he’ll set up the fifteen traditional bristle dartboards, making sure each oche — the toe-line (rhymes with hockey) — is 7 feet 9-3/4 inches away from the board. He’ll be setting out Toys for Tots donation boxes, too. Tournament entrants must bring either a toy valued at $5 or more or $5 cash before they can lay their hands on the old-school woody darts they’ll use for the day.

“At most tournaments, everybody has their own darts,” Pittman says. “This is a fun event because everybody has to throw the same darts.”

The woody darts have steel tips and turkey feathers for smooth flight, but the light wood makes throwing accurately more difficult — thereby leveling the playing field between purists and soft-tippers. But a few sharks may show up. According to Pittman, at least three top-ranked throwers have expressed interest in the tournament. The blind draw for 501 matches might pit amateur against pro.

Pittman will be at the registration table most of the day, but he won’t pass up the chance to compete. “I’ll be throwing in the men’s singles for sure,” he says.