ORIGIN OF DARTS
It is widely believed that darts date back to the Middle Ages. Bored soldiers hurled arrows at the upturned covers of wine barrels, perhaps seeing who could come closest to the cork bung. As darts grew in popularity, the game developed so that a cross-section of a tree would offer a better target. When winter came and the soldiers spent more time inside, they couldn't throw their full-sized arrows, so shortened versions of them were used resembling today's modern darts but made from wood.
Early forms of Darts started to grow in popularity in the 19th Century but it didn't become a serious pub game until it was known as Dart and Target in 1904. It was played on a board of numbered coloured circles, on which doubles and trebles did not feature, the highest score being the bullseye and lowest at the edge. It received a big boost in 1937,when the King and Queen casually threw darts at a dartboard. The number of Dart playing pubs trebled over the next two years where it seemed to replace Quoits as the game of choice.
The London board's (the primary darts board in use today) segmented numbering scheme is inherited from the old Yorkshire, Burton, Irish and Lincoln boards which have a similar arrangement. The origin of the strange numbering scheme is lost in history but it appears that the distinctive arrangement of the numbers was invented sometime in the late 19th century, probably in the North of England. It isn't known why the numbers are placed as they are but it it is clear that some effort has been taken to ensure that consecutive numbers are mostly placed well away from each other.