When
first starting your darts career it is nice to receive a few trophies to show to
your friends and family but very quickly, if you have any skill, you will
accumulate dozens of useless trophies. Most will be made of plastic, some will be made of wood and
others may have a marble plinth, but they will still have no real value. Silver cups and shields are nice to win but are only
awarded for the bigger competitions or else they have to be returned every year
for the next presentation.
More
and more pub leagues are realizing that players are getting disenchanted with
these plastic prizes and some are starting to award prize money instead. 
The
amounts are usually small and will only buy you a few drinks although some leagues are now playing for higher stakes. To do this
though team fees have to be considerably more.
Prize money in town KOs is usually a little
higher, may be a couple of
hundred pounds, but the really big money is only to be had in national
competitions. Even then the prizes are not of the same order as for snooker,
tennis or golf. For some 
reason the game of darts does not have the same kudos
as these sports.
PS
The Weston League used to give trophies, but a couple of years ago a league vote
was taken to award small monetary prizes instead