Gifts for dart players

This is the gift that works regardless of what darts they throw, what board they own, or how good they are. A surround is a thick foam or rubber ring that fits around the board and catches the darts that miss.

It solves a problem every dartboard owner has and most tolerate for far too long, because buying it feels like admitting you miss. Receiving one as a gift neatly sidesteps that.

It also protects the dart points from striking a hard wall, which extends the life of their darts.

If they have a bristle board and are still throwing the darts that came in the box, this is a genuinely excellent gift. Bundled darts are unbalanced, with grips that do nothing and flights that fall apart.

A mid-weight set around 22 to 24 grams with a moderate grip is the safe specification when buying for someone else. It is enough of a real set that they will use it, without being so specialized that it only suits one throwing style.

The caveat matters though: this is steel tip, for a bristle board. On an electronic board it is useless.

A cabinet does three things at once: it protects the wall, it closes so the board is not the dominant feature of the room, and it puts a scoreboard within arm's reach of the throw line.

That third point matters more than people expect on a bristle board, since there is no automatic scoring and a scoreboard is what turns throwing into playing games.

It is also the gift that makes a home setup look intentional rather than improvised, which is a real thing to give someone.

Most home dartboards have no marked throw line, or an approximate one. That means everyone stands somewhere slightly different and nobody practices the same distance twice.

A marked oche at the correct 7ft 9¼in fixes it for almost no money, and it is the kind of small gift that makes someone's existing setup better rather than adding another object to it.

The darts bundled with electronic boards are usually the weakest part of the package, and soft-tip darts are consumables in a way steel tips are not — the plastic points break regularly.

A decent set with spare tips is the right gift for an electronic board owner, and it neatly avoids the most common darts gifting mistake.

Professional signature sets are real specifications rather than badges — the grip pattern and balance are designed around a particular player's throw, and people who play seriously have opinions about them.

This is the gift for someone whose darts you have heard them discuss. If you have never heard them mention grip or weight, buy something else from this list.