It's a Bullseye

My son has grown up with darts in some respects. It's mainly been the fault of sky that we have access to loads of Darts tournaments and he has watched them avidly, because, well, I have too. I adore darts. It is unquestionably one of the purest forms of sports. You cannot really cheat! You can't take performance enhancing drugs, because you don't move, you stand. So true athleticism isn't really required and growth hormone or testosterone isn't going to give you the edge either. If you could buy laser eyes then maybe...

...I played in a pub team, the Orchard House for quite a few years before I left Devon, and my game kind of withered as there wasn't the friends or the locations to play in the village I moved to. It was a shame, but I always carried a torch for the darts and one day I knew i'd get a board somehow. Moving to a larger house has helped. My son picking up an interest also as now we could share the board and a pastime we both could enjoy together. He's a very Keen lad. He will throw himself into most things like a tornado! A human pocket rocket.

For his birthday then I purchased a Unicorn dart board with stand. The idea was to have it in the garage, though my initial measurements meant it was going to be a bit touch and go, but I thought, there's always a plan B.

And plan B it was. The garage is high enough, but sadly the concrete beams that run under the roof are too low down. You could see the board but a taller player (me) could not arch the darts from over 6ft to aim for anything at the top without the dart hitting the beam. it was carried into the dark loft!

It took a while to set up but once it was set up my son was overjoyed. In his serious voice; A voice so serious I was startled he began to utter this sentence to me like he had been overcome with the ghost of a Victorian aristocrat at a debutant ball in 1895.

'Daddy, may I have the honour of throwing the first dart, please?'

Said with such Gravitas as though we had found the holy grail and he wanted to pick it up first. I had to subdue both the laughter and the respect for darts he’d shown. 

He picked out his new brass darts from his handmade darts storage unit, made by his papy and threw his first darts at his first proper dart board. He seemed so happy that we played for a good few hours. 

At the end once we’d packed up and climbed down from the loft he said, ‘daddy, I have really enjoyed playing darts with you.’ 

I have to say I may have had an emotional wobble at this point. Father and son activities aren’t something I am particularly experienced in from the child’s perspective. I said the same and hopefully now he’ll crack on and win millions in prize money to fund his parents retirement!

Until then, we’ll just try and have fun.