Widdy has been making dartboards for as long as I can remember. One of the two styles that they offer is known as a “paper board”.
The paper boards are made completely differently than the wooden boards. Instead of pieces of wood connected together, paper is wound tightly to make the board. When a dart hits the board, it sinks into a seam between the windings of paper.
The idea behind using a paper board instead of a wooden one is that in theory, the darts never “eat away” at the paper the same way they chew up wooden boards. The darts should slip between the layers of paper, and if twisted out, they leave no trace. So, theoretically, paper boards last forever.
They are priced higher than the wooden boards, but they may be more difficult to make as well.
In actuality, a hook at the end of a dart will pull pieces of paper out just as it would pull extra wood from the board. So, you’re not using sharp darts, your board will degrade no matter what it’s made out of. And, over time, I’ve had the wires work their way out of a paper board, bringing its life to an end.
The coloring on the paper boards is just that, colored paper. So, you may find that the printing was off a little, and the color creeps outside of the scoring area. For instance, part of the triples area may have red color to it. So, keeping score, and judging the truthfulness of the score-caller, may be more difficult with a paper board. After all, the dart is sticking out of the red, and he’s calling it a triple?
Paper boards rotate easily – so there’s no excuse to not rotate your board! In fact, they rotate so easily that one person leaving an Amazon review lamented that the “wires didn’t even line up with the innings!”. I had to leave a note to let them know that that was not a defect, and the power to resolve the issue laid in their own hands!
They also have two sides to them, so you can flip them once the first side shows sign of wear. While wooden dartboards are the “official ABDA” style of boards for tournaments such as PA States and Nationals, I know of very successful leagues that prefer using the paper boards.
Dear Widdy I bought one of your (have fun RELAX play darts) score boards and love it but unfortunately my kids knocked it off the wall and broke all six score wheels on the right side I was wondering if I could buy 6 new ones
that might be an uphill climb. google is telling me that the phone number for Widdy is (215) 739-2535. Call them up and see what he has to say. good luck!