Eric Bristow hunting a sixth world title, Jocky Wilson with fire in his eyes — the 1989 final captured everything that made Lakeside great.
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Tournament History
The BDO collapsed in September 2020. Two years later the WDF revived the world championship — back at Frimley Green. An honest look at what the new era has managed, and what it can't get back.
Rules & How to Play
A clear breakdown of 501 darts rules — how scoring works, what the double out rule means, how to read a checkout, and how legs and sets build into a match.
Rules & How to Play
The official BDO and WDF measurements for dartboard height and throwing distance — bullseye at 5 ft 8 in, oche at 7 ft 9¼ in, and why the diagonal check saves you the hassle of measuring twice.
Rules & How to Play
How a leg of darts works, what the BDO World Championship format actually looked like, and the measurements every player should know. The official rules, clearly explained.
The Venue
One is a Surrey cabaret room that holds 1,170 people and smells faintly of cigarette smoke and chip fat. The other is a Victorian north London landmark with a turbulent history and a capacity that dwarfs anything the BDO ever managed. Both hosted a World Darts Championship. That's where the similarities end.
Players & Legends
Two BDO world titles, a 125/1 upset that shook Lakeside, and then he was gone. Phil Taylor's years in the BDO were brief, brilliant, and still difficult to assess without mixed feelings.
The BBC didn't just broadcast darts in the 1980s — it made the sport what it was. Then it walked away. Here's what that cost darts, and who picked up the pieces.
The Lakeside Country Club held 1,170 people for darts. It sounded like a football ground. Here's why the smallest venue in world sport produced the loudest crowds.
Darts didn't become a major British sport by accident. It grew out of the pubs and working men's clubs of northern England and the Midlands, hit peak television in the early 1980s, and then fractured into two competing visions of what the game should be. This is how that happened.