Cricket rules: close the board, then score on it
Cricket is the pub game where a big score is worth nothing unless you closed the number first. Seven targets — 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and the bull — and the whole match is the argument over which of you shuts them faster.
How it works
Only seven targets are live: 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and the bull. Everything else on the board is dead ground.
It takes three marks to close a number. A single is one mark, a double is two and a treble is three, so one dart in the treble twenty closes the twenty outright.
Once you have closed a number and at least one opponent still has it open, every further mark you put on it scores its face value — three more darts in the treble twenty is 180 points. The outer bull scores 25, the inner 50.
When every player has closed a number it is dead and scores nobody anything. The winner is the first player to have closed all seven and be level or ahead on points.
Why a big score can be worthless
That last condition is the whole game. Closing the board first does not win it if you are behind on points — you have to keep throwing at numbers your opponent has not shut yet until you have caught up.
It is also why the twenty is not automatically the right target. If your opponent has closed the twenty and you have not, every dart you put there is buying you nothing but the close.
Cut-throat
Cut-throat inverts the scoring: the points from your overflow marks go to every opponent who still has that number open, and the lowest score wins.
With three or more players it changes what a good dart is. Racking up the twenty now feeds points to the people who have not closed it, so the game becomes about who you are punishing rather than how much you score.
The board this app plays
Standard is 20 down to 15 plus the bull. Mickey Mouse stretches it to 12 through 20 plus the bull, which is a longer game over more of the board. Wildcard deals six random numbers plus the bull, so nobody arrives with a rehearsed route.
Marks can be tapped one at a time, or entered per dart — which is the only way the marks-per-round figure is exact rather than marks per visit.
House rules this board plays
The part no other rules page has, because no other site implements them. Each one opens the setup screen with that rule already set.
- Cut-throat Your overflow points go to the opponents who still have the number open, and the lowest score wins. Set it up →
- No-score race No points at all. First player to shut all seven numbers wins outright, which turns a points grind into a pure race. Set it up →
- Quick cricket, with a round limit Two marks shut a number instead of three, and if nobody has closed the board by round twenty the leg is decided on the board as it stands — the two rules that make a six-player game finish inside an evening. Set it up →
- A level board at the limit The round limit stops a four-player game running all night, and the one board it cannot decide is two players level on points with the same numbers shut. This board normally plays on: a board nobody leads at the limit hands out nothing and the leg runs on, asked again at the end of every round after that. Under this rule the leg ends there instead — a board nobody leads at the limit ends the leg there: it is void, and the match goes to whoever is ahead on legs — level on those too and it is a draw. Set it up →
- Closed in order The league rule: the board is shut in the order it is written — 20 first, then 19 — and a mark on a later row is dead ground until the earlier ones are closed. Nobody can just farm twenties. Set it up →
- Mickey Mouse Twelve through twenty plus the bull: nine targets instead of seven, over most of the board. Set it up →
- A wildcard board Six numbers dealt at random plus the bull. The same game over a board nobody has practised. Set it up →
Common questions
- Which numbers are used in Cricket darts? Only seven targets are live: 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and the bull. Everything else on the board is dead ground.
- How many marks does it take to close a number? Three. A single is one mark, a double is two and a treble is three, so one dart in the treble twenty closes the twenty outright.
- Can you win Cricket while behind on points? No. The winner is the first player to have closed all seven numbers and be level or ahead on points, so closing the board first does not settle it.
Play it
Cricket is one of the twenty modes in Friendly Fire Casper, a free darts scoreboard that runs in a browser and keeps working when the wifi drops. It scores the game for you, undoes the dart you typed wrong, remembers who won, and can put the board on a TV while everybody scores from their own phone.