I was at a darts tournament recently where something happened that got me thinking.
Nothing particularly unusual about the tournament itself, except that the scoring was being done the old-fashioned way. No tablets, no electronic scoring systems. Just a whiteboard, a pen and somebody having to do the arithmetic.
And it was interesting.
A few players seemed a little uncomfortable with it. Some appeared to have lost confidence in their counting, and I have to admit, I wasn't anywhere near as quick as I used to be either.
That got me wondering whether, with all the advances we've made in darts scoring, we're slowly losing one of the skills that used to be such an important part of the game.
I'm Not Against Electronic Scoring
Far from it.
I think electronic scoring has been a fantastic development for darts, particularly at grassroots level.
You can turn up at a tournament, have your scores recorded automatically, see your average, look back at your matches and, in many cases, follow what's happening in the rest of the competition.
From an organiser's point of view, there are obvious advantages too. Results can be collected quickly, tournament progress is easier to monitor, and players don't have to rely on somebody transferring scores from sheets of paper.
And, of course, I'm hardly in a position to complain about technology in darts. I've spent a considerable amount of time developing Q4QS, which relies on precisely the sort of information that electronic scoring makes possible.
Without it, much of what I'm doing simply wouldn't exist.
So this certainly isn't an argument for throwing away the tablets and returning to chalkboards.
But I do wonder whether we're losing something along the way.
When Counting Was Part of Playing Darts
For years, if you played darts regularly, you generally had to learn to count.
Not necessarily because you were particularly good at mathematics, but because it was part of the game.
You'd finish your match, pick up the chalk or pen and mark the next one.
You needed to know your trebles, subtract scores fairly quickly and work out what somebody had left.
And you learned through doing it.
I can remember counting being almost automatic after a while. You didn't necessarily think about the calculation. You just knew what the score was.
Of course, everybody made mistakes occasionally. I certainly did.
But the more matches you marked, the quicker you became.
Now, in some competitions, it's perfectly possible to play darts regularly without ever having to subtract a score yourself.
The machine does it for you.
And that raises a question. If we stop practising a skill, should we be surprised when we get a bit rusty?
The Whiteboard Experience
What struck me about the tournament I attended wasn't that anybody was incapable of counting.
It was more that some people seemed uncertain.
And I include myself in that.
I've marked and scored an awful lot of darts over the years, but standing there with a pen in my hand again, I realised I wasn't quite as sharp as I remembered.
It wasn't a disaster. The scores still got calculated.
But I found myself having to think about things that once seemed automatic.
I suspect I'm not alone.
And I wonder whether somebody who has only ever played with electronic scoring would feel comfortable suddenly being asked to mark a match manually.
Some undoubtedly would. Others might find it a bit daunting.
That doesn't mean they're bad darts players. It just means they haven't necessarily had the same experience.
But Electronic Scoring Has Solved Plenty of Problems
We shouldn't forget the disadvantages of the old system either.
Not everybody enjoys marking, and not everybody is confident doing mental arithmetic in front of other players.
There's a certain pressure involved when two people are waiting for you to work out what somebody has scored, particularly if the match is moving quickly.
We've all probably witnessed a scorer getting flustered, making a mistake and then having somebody offer a not particularly helpful correction from behind them.
Electronic scoring removes a lot of that.
It can make tournaments more accessible to people who might otherwise be reluctant to enter, and it allows organisers to run competitions more efficiently.
There's also the question of accuracy. A tablet isn't guaranteed to prevent mistakes, because somebody still has to enter the correct score, but calculating the remaining total automatically removes one opportunity for human error.
And for players who enjoy statistics, being able to look back at their performances is a huge bonus.
I certainly wouldn't want to lose that.
There's a Difference Between Scoring and Knowing Your Own Finishes
This is perhaps the part I find most interesting.
Even if you never mark another match in your life, surely knowing your way around a dartboard is still an important part of being a good player?
If you're left with 126, you should have some idea of how you want to approach it.
If you have 62 remaining and your first dart lands in the single 10, you should know what options you've got without needing somebody to tell you.
That's not quite the same as adding up three darts and subtracting the total from 501.
But the two skills are related.
Players who have spent years counting tend to become very familiar with the numbers on a dartboard.
Does electronic scoring affect that familiarity, or do players still develop it naturally through playing?
I'm not sure.
You can have an electronic scoreboard doing all the arithmetic and still be an excellent player who knows every finish and combination.
Equally, I wonder whether some newer players are becoming increasingly dependent on being shown what they have left, rather than working it out themselves.
And if they are, does it actually matter?
Are We Simply Moving With the Times?
Perhaps this is just what happens when technology improves.
We don't generally insist that somebody should be able to navigate with a paper map before they're allowed to use satellite navigation.
And plenty of us rely on calculators for sums we could once do in our heads.
Technology makes things easier, saves time and allows us to concentrate on other things.
Why should darts be any different?
Maybe counting simply isn't as important as it once was.
After all, the object of darts is to win legs and matches, not to demonstrate how quickly you can subtract 137 from 501.
But I can't help feeling there's something quite satisfying about being able to look at three darts, know instantly what they've scored and what the player has left.
It's a skill, even if it's one we don't necessarily need as often.
So Where Do We Go From Here?
I certainly don't think we should abandon electronic scoring. The advantages are far too great, and the information it provides has opened up all sorts of possibilities for grassroots darts.
But perhaps there's still a place for encouraging players to learn the traditional skills.
Maybe it's something that could be taught more often when youngsters first start playing.
Perhaps clubs could occasionally use manual scoring during practice sessions.
Or maybe it really doesn't matter, and I'm simply remembering an era when everybody had to do things differently.
I don't know the answer.
What I do know is that my recent experience with a whiteboard made me realise how quickly a skill can become rusty when you stop using it.
And if it happened to me, I wonder how many others have experienced the same thing.
I'd be interested to hear what other players think.
Do you prefer electronic scoring or the traditional whiteboard?
Have you found your counting has got slower since tablets became commonplace?
And, perhaps most importantly, do you think being able to count quickly is still an essential part of being a darts player, or is it a skill that technology has made less important?
