For those looking for a good introduction to the game of darts, Eastwood Pub may be the bull's eye.

David Lee, owner of Eastwood Pub, sponsors two teams in the Athens Darts Association, which is several weeks into its season.

Lee also offers a casual experience for new players or those who want practice.

Eastwood Pub offers a blind draw every Monday night, in which players are assigned randomly to two-person teams and compete.

“Blind draw allows everyone to mix and match different skill levels,” Lee said. “We're the only club in town doing blind draws on Mondays.”

He said it provides him with a unique experience to draw people into the pub, as well as adding to the unconventional atmosphere.

“It's modeled somewhat after a European-style pub, and darts is huge in Europe,” Lee said. “When I bought this place a year ago, everyone wanted darts.”

Aside from the blind draw, the pub also has Dart League Night every Wednesday, in which the pub's two dart teams compete for a shot at a tournament victory.

These teams, along with the other teams in the Athens Darts Association, use darts as a chance to enjoy friendly competition, Jeremy Jones said.

Jones, captain of the Heartbreakers, a darts team at Safari-Athens, said that darts offered players a chance to wind down.

“You drink a beer, have fun and throw darts,” he said.

Jones said darts is more than just throwing a dart at the bull's eye.

“The Dart League plays six matches of singles cricket,” he said.

“You throw three matches of partners cricket, six matches of singles 501, one match of 601 with three partners with both double in and double out.”

Cricket, the primary game of the Darts Association, requires players to hit certain combinations of numbers.

“You aim to hit three 20's through 15's and bull's eyes,” Jones said.

By hitting the same number multiple times, the player can deactivate that number on the board.

“You get three of them, you close them out,” he said.

If a player hits three 20s, he or she not only “closes out” the number, disallowing the other team from scoring on that number, the player also has a chance to score on the other team.

Less complex than cricket are the similar games of 501, 601 and 701, in which a player of the team starts with that number of points and subtracts points by hitting numbers on the boards until reaching zero.

Even these games have some complexity, however, by adding double in or double out.

“You have to hit a double before you subtract,” in double in, Jones said.

In double out, “you want an even number; you have to go out exactly on zero,” he said.

If a player had seven points and scored an eight, the point would not count.

The score will remain seven until the player scored exactly that in some combination of smaller numbers.

Although darts, with its city-wide draw tournament and 14-week season, remains one of his most popular attractions, Lee has yet to play any darts himself, but he said he hasn't ruled it out.

“I might somewhere down the line,” he said.