Luke Littler

[Pathca]

Leave him alone.

Plus One

[glazedallover]

Oh the joys of a mis-spent youth....I wish I had thrown a few more arrows (and eaten a few more kebabs) when I was young.

[DominicBest]

I was reading a discussion about the advantages of using inches over centimetres the other day, I think it was something that was triggered by the news that Champagne could now be sold in pint bottles, and all I could think about was how pupil’s mental arithmetic prowess was lowered by using the metric system where so many things only need to be multiplied or divided by 10, 100 or 1000. 12 was so much more useful. That lead me onto wondering if teenagers still played darts; I can remember peers who were hopeless in the classroom who had hidden mental maths skills that came from playing 301. Pupils who struggled to answer basic maths questions in school were able to add three totals on the hoof, subtract the total from a starting number then offer multiple permutations to reach the end point instantaneously. Years later I was reminded of this when I called in to see a friend. He had a number of civil service colleagues with him and they were playing darts. I was amused to see the scorer had access to an electronic dartboard and three darts. When a player threw his darts the scorer replicated their positions on the electric dartboard which magically gave the total and the number left. I say magically but it did it all much slower than those school friends from the past. I remember being surprised that six presumably well educated adults didn’t have the basic maths skills needed to play darts. I blame calculators.

[ajm]

Labourers working for my father had no maths ability but if their pay was a penny out they knew and backing horses could calculate what the odds would be on accumulator bets without any problems

[Blaze]

I was given a darts board for my last birthday - brilliant. We even take it when we go camping.
@DB - yes, a great shame that calculators have replaced mental arithmetic. Apart from anything else, it keeps the brain active. It's the better educated who seem to lack this skill today.

[L Austin France]

Cribbage & Dominos 5's & 3's are good for mental arithmetic.
I've played 'em for donkey's years & often amaze folk how quick I can total scores.
Mind you, like darts players, I can pretty much tell at a glance what the scores are especially a 19 crib score.

[ajm]

I'm pretty good at totting up my score on the golf course which is quite an achievement considering how big the numbers can be

[niemeyjt]

A darts board is therapeutic. Attach a photo of your least favourite person and fire away . . .