oche

Etymology

Possibly from Middle French oche (“notch”), from Old French ocher, ochier (“to make a notch in; to notch”),, which, according to Partridge, could be related to French hocher and English nick (“small cut, notch”).

noun

1. (darts) A line behind which a player's front foot must be placed when throwing a dart.
   As has been mentioned, Darts of to-day is essentially a "public-house game," and in pretty nearly every inn, club, or institute where it has a footing (and in which has it not!) will be found minor variations in play and often games that are peculiar to the locality or even to the "school" itself. […] And in this domestic circle, at all events, it is thought that this set of Rules will prove a useful guide when taken in conjunction with what has already been said as regards the board, its position, the hockey-line, etc. 1950, Edmond Hoyle, Lawrence H. Dawson, “Darts”, in Hoyle’s Games Modernized, 20th edition, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, →OCLC; republished as The Complete Hoyle’s Games (Wordsworth Reference), Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1994, page 457
   Henry Lewis's body was tense, taut, his toes against the hockey, his right arm raised, his left eye half-closed. With grim intensity, backed by years of practice and experience, he sighted along the steel point, drew his arm back—and let the dart fly. 1977, Harry Harrison, chapter 22, in Skyfall, [London]: Hamlyn Publishing Group, →OCLC
   Small bars would tend to produce short hockeys; the tiny fishing pubs of Yarmouth gave rise to 6ft marks […] 1985, Keith Turner, Darts, 1st Perennial Library edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, page 22
   When top players are aiming to maximize their total with three darts, their average score can exceed 100; they also expect to hit the closing double with their first or second attempt. Reaching the target within 15 darts (i.e. five visits to the oche, to slip into the vernacular) is not unusual; […] 2003, John Haigh, “Let’s Play Best of Three”, in Taking Chances: Winning with Probability, new edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, page 158
   The pièce de résistance was the bar where I had over a dozen dart boards with pop-up oches. It was a massive success. 2008, Eric Bristow, [Paul Carter], “The Milky Bar Kid”, in The Crafty Cockney: Eric Bristow: The Autobiography, London: Century; republished London: Arrow Books, 2010, page 173
   Whether a player is a bullshitter, adept at hitting bullseyes, or a chucker, who throws the darts willy-nilly and hopes for the best, the pull of the oche is the same. 2016, Susie Dent, “Keeping ’Em on the Island: Darters”, in Dent’s Modern Tribes: The Secret Languages of Britain, London: John Murray
   And it's because something of the mundanely manual still adheres to darts that the players' heroic walk of honour from the green room to the oche is so incongruous. The fanfare begins, the strobes go wild, the crowds roar, hostesses wearing the sort of tinsel dresses that drove me crazy when I was eighteen escort the gladiator into the arena, only he's not a gladiator, he's a plumber. 2017, Howard Jacobson, “The Wages of Indulgence is Darts”, in The Dog’s Last Walk (and Other Pieces), London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing