Darts Cricket Rules, Scored Out on a Real Board Turn by Turn
Cricket uses seven targets: 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and the bull. Three marks close a number, and a single counts one, a double two, a treble three. Once you have closed a number your opponent hasn't, every further hit banks its face value, and you only win when all seven are closed and your score is level with or ahead of theirs.
By the Darts Fella Editorial Team
Seven targets. 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and the bull. Three marks close each of them, and marks come from where the dart lands: a single is one mark, a double is two, a treble is three, the outer bull is one and the inner bull is two.
Close a number your opponent hasn't and every further hit on it banks points at face value. A treble 20 on a number you own is 60 into your column. The second they close it too, that number is dead and nobody scores on it again for the rest of the game.
The win condition is the bit that catches people. You have to close all seven and be level or ahead on points. Close everything first while scoring nothing and you end up marooned at the board, hunting points on whatever your opponent has left open. The worked game further down ends in exactly that position, which is why it's worth reading across rather than down.
Marks, and what each dart is worth
Everything in cricket is counted in marks. Points are a side effect.
- Single 20 — one mark
- Double 20 — two marks
- Treble 20 — three marks, which closes the number outright from cold
- Outer bull (25) — one mark
- Inner bull (50) — two marks
- Anything outside the seven targets — nothing, however good it looked
Marks spill over inside a turn. A treble 19 when you already have two marks on 19 closes the number and leaves two marks spare, and those two spares score 19 apiece — 38 points — provided your opponent hasn't closed 19. Spare marks never carry across to a different number, so a treble 18 thrown when 18 is already dead is worth precisely nothing.
Order within the turn matters for the same reason. Close the number with your first dart and the next two score. Close it with your third and you bank nothing.
A full game, chalked turn by turn
Two players, standard scoring cricket, Alan throwing first. The two right-hand columns are the running totals. Watch what happens to Alan around turn six.
Nothing exotic happens here — no monster turns, no lucky bull. It's a normal game between two decent pub players, and it still ends with the player who closed everything first being 75 points behind.
Turn Thrower Darts thrown What the marks do Closed after this turn Points this turn Alan Bev 1 Alan T20, 1, 5 Three marks on 20 from cold, so 20 closes. The 1 and the 5 aren't targets and do nothing. Alan: 20 0 0 0 1 Bev T19, T19, 3 Six marks on 19. Three close it, the other three score 19 each. Bev: 19 57 0 57 2 Alan 20, 20, 5 Alan owns 20 and Bev has no marks on it, so both hits bank 20. Alan: 20 40 40 57 2 Bev 19, 19, 19 Three more on a number Bev owns outright. Bev: 19 57 40 114 3 Alan T19, 18, 18 19 closes for Alan, which kills it for both of them. Two marks go on 18. Alan: 20, 19 0 40 114 3 Bev T18, 18, 5 18 closes for Bev, and the fourth mark scores 18 because Alan is still sitting on two. Bev: 19, 18 18 40 132 4 Alan 18, T17, 17 18 closes and immediately dies. 17 closes, and the spare mark scores 17. Alan: 20, 19, 18, 17 17 57 132 4 Bev 17, 17, 17 17 closes for Bev. Another dead number. Bev: 19, 18, 17 0 57 132 5 Alan T16, 15, 15 16 closes. Two marks on 15, nothing scored. Alan: 20, 19, 18, 17, 16 0 57 132 5 Bev 16, 16, 20 Two on 16, one on 20. Nothing closes. Bev: 19, 18, 17 0 57 132 6 Alan 15, outer bull, inner bull 15 closes. Outer bull is one mark, inner is two, so bull closes on the nose with nothing spare. Alan: all seven 0 57 132 6 Bev 20, 20, 15 20 closes for Bev, killing it. One mark lands on 15. Bev: 20, 19, 18, 17 0 57 132 7 Alan inner bull, outer bull, 16 Bull belongs to Alan and Bev has nothing on it: 50 and 25. Bev is on two marks at 16, so the single 16 scores too. Alan: all seven 91 148 132 Read the last three columns across. Alan has closed all seven by the end of turn six and is still 75 down, so the game is decided by which numbers Bev left open — bull and 16. Copy this layout onto a chalkboard and you have a scoresheet. Turn six is the trap. Alan has every number shut and cannot score on 20, 19, 18 or 17 because Bev has closed those too. His only income is bull, 16 and 15, and Bev has two marks on 16 already. One more Bev dart at 16 and Alan is down to bull and 15.
That is the whole strategic shape of cricket in one turn. Closing is not winning. Closing is only how you buy the right to score.
Reading the chalk
The board is a grid: numbers down the middle, one player each side, points in an outer column. Marks get written in the player's column beside the number.
- One slash ( / ) — one mark
- A cross ( X ) — two marks, made by adding the second stroke to the slash
- A circle around the cross ( ⊗ ) — three marks, the number is closed
- A number written in the outer column — points, running total kept underneath
Some chalkers write points as a running total only, others write each turn and total at the end. Agree it before you start, because reconstructing a disputed total from a column of individual turns is how friendly games end early.
On an electronic machine none of this is your problem, but the display uses the same three states, usually shown as one, two and three lit segments beside each number.
Why the bull settles more games than the 20 does
Bull is worth 25 a dart and needs three marks like everything else, but the inner bull is 12.7 mm across and the outer ring only extends to 31.8 mm. Three marks on bull from cold means three darts into a target smaller than a 10p piece, or a mix of inner and outer.
Because it's hard, most players leave it until last. Which means most games arrive at a position where one player has bull closed and the other has nothing on it, and that player has a 25-a-dart tap running while the opponent scrambles.
If you are the player behind on points with everything else closed, bull is usually the only number left. That's not a coincidence. It's a structural feature of the game, and it's the argument for going at bull earlier than feels comfortable when you can see the closing race is going against you.
The variants, and which rule each one flips
Four things can change: which numbers are in play, where the points go, what closes a number, and how you win. Every variant below changes exactly one or two of them.
Variant Target numbers Where points go Closing rule Win condition Where you'll meet it Standard (points cricket) 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, bull Into your own column Three marks closes; spare marks score face value while any opponent is still open All seven closed and score level with or ahead of every opponent The default on almost every electronic machine and across US league play Cut-throat The same seven Added to every opponent who has NOT closed that number Same as standard All seven closed and holding the lowest score at the table Three and four-handed games. Vicious, and far better with numbers than heads-up No-score (quick cricket) The same seven Nowhere — points aren't kept at all Three marks closes First player to close all seven Teaching someone the marks, or when you've got ten minutes before last orders Hidden cricket Seven targets concealed and revealed as play uncovers them Into your own column Same as standard Same as standard A machine option. Removes the go-at-20-first tactic entirely, which is the point of it Random / wildcard cricket Seven drawn at random from 1 to 20 plus the bull Into your own column Same as standard Same as standard Machine option, or drawn from a deck of cards on a steel board Tactics / Mickey Mouse (UK and Ireland) The same seven in most houses, though many add the doubles ring and the trebles ring as extra targets needing three hits each Into your own column, or not kept at all depending on the house Same as standard for the numbers; the added rings close the same way All targets closed, points level or ahead where points are kept Pub boards in Britain and Ireland, where asking for 'cricket' will often get you this Settle which row you're playing before anyone throws. Rows two and six start the arguments: cut-throat inverts who wants the points, and Tactics quietly adds two more targets that take a fistful of darts to close. Cut-throat deserves a word of warning. With two players it's just standard cricket with the arithmetic reversed and it plays flat. With four it becomes a game about who you punish, and the leader gets ganged up on, which is either the best thing about it or the reason your mate stops coming round.
Random cricket is the one worth trying if your group has stalled. Take out the 20 and the players who only practise the 20 bed suddenly have nothing.
Strategy the scoring forces on you
None of this is opinion. It falls straight out of the fact that marks buy the right to score and dead numbers pay nobody.
- Open on 20 and keep going after it closes. Three darts in the treble 20 bed is nine marks: three to close, six scoring at 20 each. That's 120 points from one turn and it decides most games before anyone touches 15.
- Close what they're scoring on before you close what you'd like to score on. Killing a number your opponent owns stops their income immediately, and it's worth more than opening a new one of your own.
- Never close a number nobody is scoring on unless you're closing it to win. A dead number is a dead number for both of you.
- If you're ahead on points, close everything and finish. If you're behind, hold at least one open number back that your opponent hasn't touched — that's your route to the points you need.
- Trebles on numbers you already own are worth three times as much as trebles on numbers you're still closing. Once 20 is yours and theirs is open, the treble 20 bed is a 60-point dart.
- Bull earlier than feels right when the closing race is going against you. It's the number most likely to be left as your only income.
Agree these before the first dart
House rules vary more in cricket than in any other darts game. Five minutes now saves an argument at 132-all.
- A dart that bounces out or falls out doesn't count, even if you saw where it hit. Standard everywhere, and still disputed weekly.
- The game ends the instant the win condition is met, mid-turn. Remaining darts in hand are not thrown.
- Equal points plus all seven closed is a win under the usual rule. If your group prefers strictly-more, say so now.
- Whether numbers must be closed in order (20 down to 15, then bull). Some houses insist. Most don't.
- Whether the outer bull counts as one mark and the inner as two, or the whole bull counts as one. The two-mark inner is standard; the single-mark version turns bull into a slog.
- In cut-throat, whether points go to all open opponents or only the one in the lead.