I hadn’t been in the Cider Press since I was an undergraduate, normally quite worse for wear on Gloucester Road pub crawls. Since I knew it had a dartboard, and I had an hour to spare, I popped in on a very quiet Sunday afternoon. There was nothing on cask and limited keg options, but the Guinness was well poured and in an immaculate glass.

The set-up is interesting, as it is built into a Dart Shark interactive game case. This has several cameras pointed at the board, allowing automatic recognition of where the darts land, similar to Flight Club. It has a suite of games, including standards such as 501, cricket, assassin etc… but also some more creative ones. I know this because the tellies next to the board constantly advertised the different games. Although I only played analogue darts on this visit, I would be tempted to have a go at some of the games, for £5 a person an hour.

The board itself is slightly unusual, unbranded and made of quite loose sisal, which normally indicates low quality. However, the wires were very thin, with no staples, and it was a delight to throw on. The darts made a lovely soft thudding sound as they landed, and I can’t recall a bounce out. Also, note that the numbers are painted directly onto the board, which means it cannot be rotated to relieve the treble 20 segment from the battering it gets. I’m not sure how old the board is, time will tell how it stands up. There was a decent sized chalkboard to the left of the board for scoring the old-fashioned way.

The oche was great, plenty of space for people who prefer throwing from the extremes of the line, rather than being crammed into a corner as they often are. The line itself was pretty faded, albeit still useable. I didn’t measure it, but the board was the correct height using my eye level as a rough estimate, and the throwing distance felt correct. I also enjoyed the darts related patent drawings framed to the left of the oche. There were similar pool related ones on the other side of the room, which also contained two pool tables.

I plan to re-visit the Cider Press with a mate to take full advantage of the Dart Shark set-up, I’ll update the bottom of this post with the results. Hopefully it will also give a better chance to see what the pub is like when it’s a bit busier. I was one of five patrons on the Sunday afternoon I visited, meaning it had a very subdued atmosphere. Normally a set-up like this is enough to tempt me in, a pint of Guinness and a good darts set-up. However, Industry bar and kitchen is almost directly opposite, with a better set-up and always a decent pint of Tribute. Report on Industry’s dartboard to follow soon!