Hi CPR, thanks for your comments, I checked out the link and see that this golf game is 32.70 pound including VAT, my game sits around 37.50 at the current conversion rate so I think it's pretty comparable and to be honest I think its worth the extra 5 pound. I am not sure how this golf game is played but I doubt that in accurately reflects the sport itself. I think cricket is probably the only game that lends itself to a dart board based interpretation and I believe mine gets as close as possible to replicating the scoring system and game play. As you mentioned there is a cricket game that is played on a regular board and it is very popular. So if you are going to play cricket on a dart board why not play a game that you can actually score 4's and 6's, get bowled or caught etc?
Obviously the shipping charges from Australia to the UK are prohibitive so the intention at this time was to just see what interest it got in Australia and take it from there. In fact it wasn't till after I started this thread that I realised this forum is not Australian based, had I done so i wouldn't have posted at this time. We have design registration approved and patents pending in the UK so it is definitely a market that we are interested in exploring with both cricket and darts being very popular over there. As you rightly point out, we would definitely have games shipped from within the UK if it goes to that point.
With regard to the cheaper quality boards, the initial prototype was one of these and to be honest after 3 or 4 games it was basically unusable. In fact if I was to buy one of them and this happened not only would I not buy a replacement I would not recommend it either.
So basically, I had an idea, drew up a design, got a small quantity made and now I am just testing the water to see if there is any interest. Nothing ventured nothing gained. I also believe its a great game and people will have a lot of fun with it, Not only the younger generation either, I have had mates around to play and I can tell you it was like we'd stepped onto the SCG for a test match :-) very competitive and plenty of sledging :-)
In testing the game and playing with friends a 20 over a side games average score is around 6 for 160 which is fairly accurate to a real 20/20 match. As NUFAN pointed out this may not be the case if Phil Taylor was playing but there are ways to handicap top class dart players (that don't involve removing thumbs) and as I have said, I don't think this is a problem for the vast majority of people who would buy this game.
Anyway, it's out there and we'll see how it goes. I think you would enjoy it.
