Leading Kiwi darts player Cody Harris warmed up for his return home for the NZ Darts Masters, with his best-ever run on the Professional Darts Corporation's ProTour on Sunday.
Harris has been competing mainly on the second-tier Challenge Tour circuit over the past 18 months since relocating to the UK,winning his second of the £2000 ($3700) titles last month.
However, he earned a chance to top up the 128-player field at last weekend's Players Championship tournaments in Germany, gaining valuable top-level match practice ahead of the forthcoming World Series of Darts event in Hamilton.
Harris was a first round loser to former World Championship quarter-finalist Darren Webster in Saturday's Players Championship 21, but responded superbly in Sunday's tournament to reach the semifinal.
He beat former Premier League star Kim Huybrechts, 2018 Austrian Open winner Jonny Clayton and Dutch youngster Wessel Nijman with 6-5 scorelines to reach the last 16.
There, he turned on the style to defeat Finland's Marko Kantele 6-1 and then overcame Saturday's winner Krzysztof Ratajski 6-4 in the quarterfinals with another strong performance.
Harris was eventually defeated 7-3 in the semifinals by Northern Ireland's Brendan Dolan – the eventual winner – but collected £3000 ($5550) in prize money, moving up to 130th on the PDC Order of Merit.
Harris is heading home to Auckland to prepare for the NZ Darts Masters, where he will line up against the likes of world champion Michael van Gerwen, recent World Matchplay winner Rob Cross and the legendary Raymond van Barneveld.
