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Popular pastime now $1m pursuit
Charlie Fleming drove 230 miles from Boston to Fairfield, N.J., one recent Saturday and gave it his all. He stepped to the line, focused, and flicked his wrist. His target: qualifying in a regional tournament to become a finalist at the inaugural World Series of Darts at the Mohegan Sun casino in May.
That's right: the World Series of Darts, a weekend-long competition inspired by the phenomenal success of televised poker tournaments. Die-hard darters in Boston and around the country have been honing their skills at bars and at home for their shot at fame and a top prize of $1 million. ESPN, which is betting that darts will be as popular on television as poker is, will cover the event for an eight-part series to air in July.
''Darts is somewhere in that netherworld between sports and entertainment," said Michael Davies the executive producer who brought ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and ''Wife Swap" to the United States. He's producing the World Series of Darts with ESPN and the Professional Darts Corporation. ''The players are phenomenal characters."
Davies grew up watching televised darts in England, where the sport has cultivated a fanatical following. It's an old English game, dating back to medieval archers, who would break the tips from their arrows and throw them at targets on pub walls. American soldiers visiting England during World War II got hooked and brought the game to the United States.
Darts is so popular in England that fans subscribe to pay-per-view matches on television, and the British Darts Organisation is pushing for the sport to be admitted into the 2012 Olympics. The game hasn't caught on with the same ferocity here, but its popularity is growing. Last year Fox Sports aired the World Darts Championships and the Las Vegas Desert Classic darts tournament, and the American Darters Association says 18.5 million people in the United States play darts in recreation rooms, basements, and neighborhood pubs and bars several times a week.
''Right now, darts, as it has been, is a cult in the positive sense of the word," said Glenn Remick, president of the darters association, which is based in St. Louis. ''I call it a sport, where other people look at it as a leisure time activity, a hobby." Remick, a former Braintree resident, played darts in Stoughton and Randolph bars in the 1970s. He plans to drop in on the World Series of Darts, which will be held May 19-21. ''I hope it is going to educate the general public that there is actually something behind our sport of darts, that there is substance there," he said.
The game of darts has an everyman appeal: Anyone can play. Weather is not a factor. Fees are low. There are no gender or physical limitations. Being tall or short, heavy or thin, old or young is of no consequence.
In Boston, darting has been a big under-the-radar sport for years. Walk into nearly any pub or bar and people are often throwing darts at dartboards against rear walls.
The Minute Man Dart League has 150 teams in Greater Boston. On a recent Tuesday night at Allston's Silhouette Lounge, six teams, most of them co-ed, with such names as the A-Team, the Shadows, and Waverly Knights fired away in a packed backroom designated solely for dart matches. Before and after they competed, team members shook hands.
Four dartboards hung under bright lights along the rear wall of the bar as the jukebox blared classics such as the Beach Boys' ''Good Vibrations." Behind a line of onlookers and fellow competitors, players stepped to the line, flicked their wrists, and threw their darts. With their twitching fingers and steady focus, some hit the bull's-eye.
''I love the competitiveness," said Fleming, 70, who has been playing darts for 32 years. ''I go to see if I can beat the better player." He plays on the A-Team on Tuesday nights but also plays at the West Roxbury Pub and practices at home in his garage. He's a serious player; he says he puts in 20 hours a week.
Fleming didn't make the cut that morning in New Jersey, but he has two more chances closer to home. The people behind the World Series of Darts will hold regional qualifiers April 1 at a Holiday Inn in Marlborough and then April 22 at the Good Time Emporium in Somerville. Competitors can attend three different events to try to qualify. (For registration information, visit bullseyenews.com.)
''It's a game of concentration," he said, demonstrating in slow motion his dart-throwing technique. ''Sometimes I have to pull myself away from the dartboard."
The dart room was segregated by ability -- the more seasoned players in their 30s, 40s, and older on the left side, the 20-somethings with baseball jerseys and baseball caps on the right. They come here every other Tuesday, as much for the socializing as for the competition.
''We all graduated, and we like the fact that we can still hang out," said Allston's Erol Ozmeral, 23, between shots with his alumni crew from Boston University.
''It's a great reason to have drinks and meet up with friends in the middle of the week," said Frank Behrens, who lives in the South End.
While the college-age and postcollege players aim more for fun, others take the sport much more seriously. The sport has a central spot in Ray Carver's life. In his Nashua, N.H., basement, Carver practices for three hours a day. Tuesday nights he plays for a few more hours in the Minute Man Dart League at the West Roxbury Pub. On weekends he plays in local tournaments.
He installs floors for a living but wants to turn professional with darts, if it catches on to the degree that poker has. So he's been training to qualify for the World Series of Darts. Local players say they expect him make the cut. Carver is ranked third nationally in the sport, according to the American Darts Organization website.
Carver, 32, got hooked on the game 11 years ago when asked to fill in for a player in a bar. His first time playing yielded two perfect scores. He hasn't stopped since. He has an agent and a sponsor, Unicorn Darts Products. He competed in England last December against top-ranked international players. Next up: the World Series of Darts in Connecticut.
''It's about the competition, like any other sport, the desire to win," he said, ''and be the best at what you do."
Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com . 
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
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