Sports the Olympics Forgot – Dockey

The game of Dockey is a combination of the sports of Darts and Hockey. The origins of the game are obscured in a midwinter’s drinking session in a pub by the local hockey team, who were arguing about who could throw a dart with the most accuracy over the length of a hockey pitch.

The issue was resolved the following day. The dartboard was nailed to the crossbar of one of the hockey goals and all the players stood at the opposite end of the pitch. It was found that no one could throw the dart more than halfway even with a hangover. Some spare dartboards were found and given to five players. The goalkeeper was given a dart and he threw it to the nearest player who caught it in his dartboard. He then passed to the next player up the pitch and this continued until the crossbar dartboard was in range.

Any player can throw the dart into the crossbar dartboard and wherever the dart lands counts towards the team’s score. The goalkeeper doesn’t have a dartboard but still has a hockey stick to stop the dart with. If the dart lands in the hockey stick then the goalkeeper has control of the dart and can initiate the next attack for his team. If the dart lands on the ground then anyone can pick it up and the game continues.

The following Saturday it was decided to hold the first ever dockey game, between members of the same hockey team. The contest was 6-a-side and had two halves, each of forty minutes. They found that four officials were needed; one in each goalmouth to take note of the score when the dart lands in the board and two umpires one in each half.

To learn more, see here for details