Darts glossary: PPD, ton 80, Cricket and the awards the machine calls

Walk into a self-service darts bar for the first time and you'll hear "just hit a ton 80", "what's your PPD?", and have no idea what any of it means. Here's a plain darts glossary: soft tip, steel tip, Cricket, and the words the machine shouts at you. Read it and the next session makes sense.

First: soft tip vs steel tip

• Soft tip / electronic darts: plastic points, an electronic board, the machine scores for you. The standard in Taiwan, Japan and US bars. AI DARTS runs Phoenix machines. The throwing line (oche) is 2.44 m from the board.
• Steel tip / hard darts: steel points, a sisal board, scored by hand. This is the PDC/WDF pro game and what's on TV. The oche is 2.37 m.
• Bull height is the same for both: 173 cm off the floor.

Scoring and stats

• PPD (points per dart): the key 01 stat: total points ÷ darts thrown. Higher is better.
• PPR (points per round): the 3-dart average, i.e. PPD × 3.
• MPR (marks per round): the key Cricket stat. Nine is the max in one visit (three trebles).
• 3-dart average: the number you see on TV. Pros run roughly 95–110.
• Ton: 100 in one visit. More than that is a "ton-something" (140 = ton 40).
• Ton 80: 180 in one visit (three treble 20s), the maximum three darts can score.
• High ton: a visit of 151–180. Low ton: a visit of 100–150.
• Nine-darter: finishing 501 in the minimum nine darts. The rarest feat in steel-tip darts.
• Bust: in 01, going below zero, leaving exactly 1, or (in double-out) reaching zero without a double. The visit is void and your score reverts.
• Checkout / out: reducing your score to exactly zero.
• Shanghai: a single, double and treble of the same number in one visit.
• Robin Hood: a dart landing in the shaft of another. Looks great, scores nothing.

The board and the gear

• Bull / bullseye / cork: the centre. Outer ring (green) = 25; inner (red) = 50 (double bull).
• Separate bull / fat bull (soft tip): separate: 25 outer / 50 inner; fat: the whole bull counts 50. Pro soft-tip events often use fat bull.
• Treble / triple / T: the thin inner ring, x3. T20 = 60, the target in 01.
• Double / D: the thin outer ring, x2. D20 = 40, the finishing target in steel tip.
• Spider / wire: the metal web dividing the board. In steel tip, hitting it bounces the dart out.
• Bounce-out: a steel dart that rebounds scores nothing. Electronic boards don't bounce.
• Oche (the line), barrel (the grip; good ones are tungsten: dense, so it can be made slim), shaft, flight, point (steel or soft).

How a match is built

• Leg, set (several legs make a set, used in big steel-tip events), best of (best of 5 legs = first to 3).
• 01 games (301 / 501 / 701): count down from a fixed score; first to zero wins.
• Double out (last dart must be a double or the bull, steel-tip standard) / straight out / open out (a single counts, the common machine default) / master out (double, bull or treble).
• Bull-up / cork: one dart each before the match; closest to the bull throws first.
• Break: winning a leg you didn't throw first in.
• Bogey numbers: 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162, 159: can't be checked out in three darts.

Cricket terms

• Cricket: only 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and the bull are live. Three marks (single 1, double 2, treble 3) open a number; you then score on it until the opponent also closes it.
• Mark: the counting unit; nine is the max per visit.
• Winning: close 15–20 and the bull, and be level on points or ahead.
• The bull in Cricket: outer bull = 1 mark (25), inner bull = 2 marks (50).
• Cut-throat: points you score go to your opponents; lowest score wins.
• No-score Cricket: no points at all; first to close everything wins.

The awards the Phoenix machine calls

Hit something good and the Phoenix machine plays an animation and a voice line:

• TON 80: three darts in T20 in one round (180).
• HAT TRICK: three darts in the bull (inner or outer) in one round.
• LOW TON: a round over 100. HIGH TON: a round of 151–180.
• WHITE HORSE: in Cricket, three darts in three different treble zones you hadn't hit yet.
• 3 IN THE BLACK (three inner bulls), BED (three darts in the same double or treble), commonly heard; exact display varies by machine model.

What "Phoenix RATING" means

The soft-tip question is "what's your rating?" AI DARTS runs Phoenix, so it's the Phoenix RATING.

• The machine works it out from your 01 GAME PPD and S.CRICKET MPR. Rating runs 1 to 30: Rating 1 is roughly under 10 PPD, Rating 30 needs 48+ PPD and 6+ MPR.
• Rating maps to 12 classes, low to high: N → C → CC → CCC → B → BB → BBB → A → AA → AAA → Master → Grand Master. Hitting A counts as advanced; Master and up is serious.
• There's a GENERAL RATING (your running average) and a COMPETITION RATING (for tournaments). You need a PHOENIXcard in the machine for any of it to track.
• The other big system, DARTSLIVE, rates 1–18 with flights C–SA. That's a different scale, so the numbers don't line up.

Slang you'll hear

• Arrows (British nickname for darts), tungsten (the barrel material), maximum (a 180).
• The Power: Phil Taylor's nickname (16 world titles).
• Chalker / marker: the person keeping score in a steel-tip match.
• Dartitis: the yips: you can't release the dart. It gets pros too.
• Madhouse: double 1. When you're left on 2 it's your only target, and missing busts you.

Don't worry about memorising it: the machine walks you through everything. For the rules, see how to play Cricket and 501; for a place to practise, AI DARTS boards run 24 hours self-service: details here. Menu is here.