Why 501/301 vs. 500/300

Dart Arts Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

I thought the answer was going to be complicated but in truth it isn’t and the “01” games, as they are often referred to by the dart arts, got its start from another game. The game of Cribbage played on olod English pubs, a card game, that scores from the value in the cards and scored by the peg holes in a “Crib board.” 

It is the crib board that hints at the “01” aspect rather than just picking an even number like 300 or 500, etc. There are thirty holes on each side of the crib board … wait for it … plus one extra hole per side called the “Home” making the score sixty-one.

I quote, “In the early days of modern darts the score, to enable scores to be fairly recorded, was defined as 'five times round' the crib board, that is a total of 300 (60 x 5) plus 1 - 301. At every stage of play the players could see where they were in terms of score by looking at the crib board.”

Then chalking was introduced and to change the already established rule of the “01” games was not needed because, as you know, history and heritage often keep things the same such as, “If it works, don’t change it” attitude. 

“When chalking was introduced and as more people began to play, later versions of the game were anything - 01, (601, 701, 1001, 1,000,001 etc) but this is how it all started. Also, if the - 01 wasn't there it would make darts terribly boring as good players would just keep hitting 20s. With the - 01 it means that players have to move away from the 20 bed - at least for a short while - in order to win the game.”

This is why I use golf, a common well-known game to everyone, as an analogy to playing dart “01” games where the long game is to bring the score down as quick as possible to at least 170 or less, then the short game is working to get the “double-out” in the least amount of throw darts as humanly possible. 

Hat tip (Ritsu-rei) to <Patrick Chaplin: Darts History> as the inspiration for this post.

Note: the above hat tip link takes you to a site that has a lot of historical information about the dart arts. Interesting stuff to say the least, soooo, “Game On!”