Review: Sportscraft Taverner Bristle Dartboard & Cabinet Set
Not wanting to buy one of those cheap boards with the plastic tipped darts, we invested money in the Sportscraft Taverner Bristle Dartboard and Cabinet Set.
I grew up on the bristle boards with the steel tipped darts and, even though I know they are somewhat more dangerous than the plastic ones, that’s what I wanted for our room. And, the fact this board came with a great looking cabinet was the biggest selling point for me.
Too bad it wasn’t worth the money we spent on it.
My biggest complaint with the dartboard/cabinet has to do with the so-called “easy to use” mounting kit it came with. I tried to follow the instructions with the brackets. The dart board cabinet would not mount to our wall. I tried to do it the way I thought they were supposed to go on the wall rather than follow the instructions to the letter; still the cabinet would not stay on our wall.
Finally, I grabbed our electric screwdriver and drove four screws through the back wall of the cabinet and into our wall. It stayed put. The brackets are in the garbage.
The darts this board comes with have got to be the cheapest darts I’ve ever seen. I can’t really complain too much because most boards don’t even come with the darts. However, we only threw these maybe a dozen times before one of the darts broke on us. The weird thing is it didn’t even hit that hard. It stuck in the board, fell out and broke when it hit our carpeted floor. In addition to buying a really good electric screwdriver for the reason I mentioned above, I would recommend buying an extra set of darts to go with the board; as potential replacements.
And, while it hasn’t given us any problems yet, I will also say I have concerns about the dartboard itself and its ability to survive the test of time. You have wire numbers on the board held in place by staples. We’ve already dented this wiring twice and you can see the staples coming out already. Now that it’s in place, the cabinet isn’t too bad but I have a feeling we’ll need to replace that board within a year.
In hindsight, I probably should have given up on my preference for the steel-tipped darts and invested a few extra dollars in an electronic dartboard instead. Short term, it would have cost me more money. Long term, I’m thinking it would have saved me both money and headaches.
