World champion Peter Wright has revealed how darts helped him overcome numeracy issues when he was growing up.
Wright, who won a second World Championship crown in January, struggled with maths at school but soon got to grips with the sums when he got to the oche.
The 52-year-old was able to pass on advice to a class of schoolchildren in Clapham as part of the Professional Darts Corporation’s (PDC) Bullseye Maths programme on National Numeracy Day.
“I wasn’t very good at maths when I was at school but since I took up darts I enjoyed it,” he told the PA news agency. “I felt more comfortable with maths than I did before playing darts.
“Darts helped me improve with numbers, and hopefully it will help the kids in the future with all areas of life – even simple things like making payments.
“When you hit a treble 20 you have to add up what are three 20s? A double, what are two 20s? If you are playing 501 then you have to add those scores up and then take them away, so it helps with addition and subtraction.”
Wright’s maths cannot be questioned now as he knows his way around a dartboard, able to work out all the sums in order to determine where to aim in double-quick time.
“Most of us never get stuck anymore, but when you are up there under the lights and camera and stuff like that, sometimes you maybe just double check yourself,” he added.
“Nine times out of 10 you know you are correct, but you just want to double check to make sure you throw the right dart.”
