Stop Throwing at Treble Twenty: Three Routines With Scoreboards Attached
Three darts practice routines that provably move averages — Bob's 27 for doubles, 121 checkouts, and scored 501 legs — with the numbers to track for each.
An hour of throwing at treble 20 feels like practice and mostly isn’t — no pressure, no measurement, no consequence for a loose dart. The routines that move averages share one design: every dart matters and every session produces a number. Three, in escalating order of pain.
1. Bob’s 27 — the doubles gauntlet
The classic, invented by Bob Anderson. Start with 27 points. Throw three darts at double 1: each hit adds the double’s value; miss all three and you subtract it. Proceed around the board — double 2, double 3, up to the bull. Go below zero and the game ends where you stand.
Why it works: pub players practice doubles rarely and under no pressure; Bob’s 27 makes every double consequential and makes the misses cost. The number to track: your finishing double (or score). Surviving to double 20 is solid league standard; finishing the board above 27 is genuinely strong. Play it daily and your checkout percentage — the stat that actually wins legs — climbs within weeks.
2. The 121 game — checkout construction
Set 121 on the board and finish it in six darts or fewer. Success moves you up a point (122); failure moves you down. The score you settle at after twenty minutes is your honest checkout ceiling.
Why it works: it drills combination thinking — 121 is treble 20, single 11, bull, or twenty other routes — and forces the arithmetic under mild pressure. Professionals use versions of this exact ladder. The number to track: your stable level. League players hover in the low 100s; getting your ladder above 130 changes what “a finishable score” means in real legs.
3. Scored 501s against par
Play 501 legs alone, but against a par opponent: give yourself 15 darts (strong league pace) or 18 (solid pub pace) to close each leg, and record win/loss against par plus your three-dart average per leg.
Why it works: it is match darts without a partner — pace, scoring pressure, and a defined enemy. The par forces honest urgency that solo legs lack. The number to track: average and par record, per session, in a note on your phone. Ten sessions of data will tell you things about your game that feel-based practice hides forever — including which routine above your numbers say you need most.
Twenty minutes of any of these beats two hours of treble-20 wallpaper. The board keeps score; let it.