The man who is credited with the ‘invention’ of the numbering sequence of the modern sta

The man who is credited with the ‘invention’ of the numbering sequence of the modern standard dartboard is Brian Gamlin. Gamlin was a carpenter and showman from the County of Lancashire, England and came up with the  sequence at the age of 44.

He introduced the numbering variation at a county fair in 1896. Though darts were already a popular fairground activity, Gamlin built the board for a new game he called ‘round the clock’ in which players have to score with darts in numerical order. 

Gamlin designed the numbering  in such a way as to cut down the incidence of ‘lucky shots’ and reduce the element of chance. The numbers are placed in such a way as to encourage accuracy - the placing of small numbers either side of large numbers. 

There are 2,432,902,008,176,640,000 different possible arrangements of the 20 segments on a standard dartboard so its impressive that Gamlin’s arrangement of the numbers is almost perfect.

The maximum possible total of the difference between adjacent numbers is 200 (the sum of the numbers between 1 and 19) and Gamlin’s arrangement comes close at 196.

However, it could be improved most simply by moving the 14 and placing it between the 6 and the 10.