It sounds like something out of a dream — the game of darts away from an ale-soaked back corner of a cosy British pub and injected with all the colour, sounds and sun of the Pacific Islands.
But with darts on the rise across the Pacific, it’s not a dream but a reality.
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tonga all competed in the South Pacific Darts Championships last month, with the Cook Islands winning both the men’s and women’s divisions.
Although Papua New Guinea was absent from the event this year due to lack of funding, darts is bigger than ever in PNG, and the sport has merged into the culture with flair.
A common site in PNG is the open-air ‘darts stores’ where throwers play for bottles of cola. And these street-based dart comps have come to play a positive role in the community.
Official darts associations are growing too, with meets held in pubs and clubs across the country.
The sport attracts both men and women and has no age restrictions — some darts clubs are producing talented kids who beat adults in tournaments.
At the national level, darts organisers in PNG are doing their bit for the inclusion of the sport in the Pacific and Commonwealth Games, with an eye to eventually making it to the Olympics.
Cola darts
The most visible form of darts in PNG is colloquially known as ‘cola darts’.
You can see the daily darts gatherings at the markets or public meeting spots across the islands.
Throwers meet to play for bottles of cola but can also play for money, tobacco, beer, and noodles.
If you pass by this rogue form of darts, stay out of the way. Arrows whiz by in the open air, aiming for several boards at a time.
Some targets are eye level, fixed to a peg or fence or, if nothing is available, the boards are propped up on the ground with rocks or bits of concrete.
Port Moresby is a hotspot for cola darts. Players gather daily over several locations in the capital. The stalls run all day.
Petes Jerry is a regular at Port Moresby’s Nine Mile market darts
“We start in the morning and finish at night. Sometimes we make profits [of] 30, 20, 15 kina ($6.15), sometimes we lose. That’s why we stay,” Jerry said.
Nine Mile market is in the Morobe Block, a settlement community of people from the Morobe region of PNG.
It’s a struggle for many families within the settlement areas of Port Moresby, and for those in the Morobe Block at Nine Mile it is no exception.
Many of the youths have dropped out of school, unable to continue their studies due to financial constraints.
Most of the adults turn to black-market sales of tobacco, food and betel nut to put food on the table.
The residents survive in a harsh environment but the darts competition has enabled the young and old to come together to compete and share their wins.
Jerry said this had helped to keep the peace at the community level.
“We don’t have jobs, most kids aren’t at school. We look forward to coming here and uniting and competing within our community as it helps keep us out of trouble.”
Vincent Piango has been throwing at the Nine Mile since he was 10 years old.
“We see and we learn,” Piango said.
“Sometimes us kids can’t go to school, so we come here … some of us are always here.”
Piango said one day he would like to test his skills in a ‘real’ competition.
And he may be in luck given the boom darts is experiencing across PNG.
Kapua Kapua is the president of the National Capital District Dart Association (NCDDA), one of five darts associations in Port Moresby.
“On average, we have about 30 to 40 teams signing on with at least six players,” Kapua said.
“We’ve had a lot of interest so we think it will go up to 40 teams this year.”
Molean Kilepak is the president of the PNG Darts Federation, a governing body created to promote and affiliate darts.
Kilepak said he’d seen a rise in the popularity of darts, not just at social gatherings but with the number of associations joining the federation.
“I think it could be because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kilepak said.
“Darts was one of the sports that had approval from the COVID-19 committee to be conducted with restricted measures.
Kilapek said since the beginning of the pandemic, the sport had also seen an uptick in children and women playing.
Small girl winning competitions and hearts
One of those children is 12-year-old Sarah Pepena. She is the youngest member of the NCDDA and plays for her family team, the Tauroos.
Pepena started playing with her uncles at home when they noticed she was accurate in hitting a triple-19 score.
“She was just short of the 20 score but her 19 was perfect,” Pepena’s mother, Isabel Nana, said.
A “triple (or treble) 19” is one way to achieve a winning score in darts, and requires a lot of skill.
Pepena’s introduction to the sport started young.
“When Sarah was about five years old we would take her to the darts with us,” her mother said. “She would carry her little toy dart boards and arrows with her. Now she’s winning games in comps.”
Pepena is currently in the top 15 female players in the NCDDA.
Last year she played division 1 against men and women double or triple her age.
“At first I didn’t know how to play, but then I saw Daddy and Uncle playing and I wanted to try,” Pepena said.
“When I tried, I found out I was actually good, so now I’m playing in a real competition.”
Her mother ensures Pepena’s education comes first. She’s a straight-A student, but darts has fast become a huge part of her life.
Darts teams are often formed through extended family ties, and women of all ages are widely represented.
Kapua said the NCDDA created a competition format where a mixed-gender and women’s round was compulsory.
“You can’t run your team unless you have women in it,” Kapua said.
“That was one of the good moves from the association executives in the mid-2000s — to make sure women are included.”
Darts still a ‘drinking sport’
Consuming alcohol while playing darts is as old as the sport itself.
But Kapua said there were some misconceptions about drinking and darts.
“We do have players drinking beer in competition, but a lot of these people are very professional, and everyone is respectful of each other,” Kapua said.
Kilepak suspects the link to drinking alcohol might contribute to sponsors’ hesitation in supporting darts.
“I do wonder if drinking has caused some difficulty in us securing sponsorships,” Kilepak said.
“We will be doing a responsible-drinking campaign in the future.”
Kilepak said some pubs did not allow under 18s in to play because of the alcohol regulations.
“This is something we need to rectify, and [we need to] encourage an area for drinking and an area for darts,” Kilepak said.
Darts is a big part of Martha Sere’s life. She plays for Telpepe Gunners in the NCDDA.
“It’s an obsession, and it keeps me on my feet yet makes me relaxed,” Sere said.
While not a big drinker herself, Sere believes part of the sport’s popularity is because you can drink.
“It’s a social game that brings people together … and the presence of alcohol plays a part in its popularity in PNG,” Sere said.
“Everyone knows it’s a drinking sport.”
Fight for darts to be included in 2027 Pacific Games
There’s growing support for darts to be recognised as a sport in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games, with current world champion Michael Smith recently calling for the sport’s inclusion.
The South Pacific Darts Association (SPDA) has been organising the Pacific Games bid.
President of the association, Neil Dalgety, said it would not be in this year’s Pacific Games, but inclusion in the 2027 Games in Tahiti looked promising,
“The SPDA’s proposal to the Pacific Games Council has letters of support from five of our member nation’s Olympic committees,” Dalgety said.
Kilepak will also provide the SPDA with a letter from the PNG Olympic Committee.
He believes there is a strong argument for darts’ inclusion, and the move “could bring many medals” to his country, citing PNG’s first place for both men and women the one and only time it competed at the South Pacific Darts Championships.
“It’s not a one-team, one-medal sport,” Kilepak said.
“Darts is similar to weightlifting. One team could mean lots of individual gold medals for PNG because we’re very good at this sport.”
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