HOME HERO Cody Harris will enjoy the biggest night of his fledgling career when he faces Raymond van Barneveld in the Auckland Darts Masters, presented by TAB and Burger King, on Friday night.
The 30-year-old from Auckland will make only his third televised appearance when he steps onto the Trusts Arena stage for the PDC World Series of Darts event.
Harris had made his TV debut last August when he qualified for the Sydney Darts Masters - where he performed creditably in a 6-3 defeat to van Barneveld - before he partnered experienced New Zealander Warren Parry at the Betway World Cup of Darts a fortnight ago.
Ironically, Harris and van Barneveld were drawn to meet again when the Auckland Darts Masters begins on Friday night - and though Harris will have his family in the crowd, he admits that they may not all be cheering for him on the biggest night of his career!
"I'm looking forward to it," said Harris. "It was a really good experience for me playing Barney last year.
"I tried to block everything out and just focus on the board and what I had to do. My sister absolutely loves him so it was a privilege to play him, and she was quite happy that he beat me!
"My biggest fans would have to be my kids. Hopefully I can inspire them to do great things - not just if they want to play darts but anything they want to do, they can apply the same principles to whatever it is they want to be."
The 30-year-old added: "It's good that I don't have to travel so far. Trip to the World Cup was just under 30 hours, and in Auckland it's a half an hour drive!
"The family will be around me so I'll feel a lot more comfortable and I can make myself at home.
"I'm doing what I love doing, which is playing darts. The players in New Zealand are a bunch of great guys and they're lifting me up. I need to hang around these top guys a bit more so that they can push me to become as good as them, but I'm loving the journey."
A father of five children, Harris is hoping that the Auckland event can be a springboard for further success after becoming the DPNZ number one this year.
"I grew up around darts," he said. "My whole family played and I grew up with it from a little kid - to a certain age I wasn't into it, but I was good at it. Now, I want to play.
"I remember the day I was throwing darts in my garage, thinking I'm good enough to be with the world's best, and I blink my eyes and I'm here.
"It might look like I'm winning the rankings easily but no-one really sees what I've had to do to get there. There's quite a few magical games I have to go through, there's quite a bit of talent in New Zealand.
"You've got the Rob Szabo's, Warren Parry's and Craig Caldwell's, but we took a bunch of new players over to [play in the DPA events in] Dubbo not long ago and they performed out of their skin. We're getting better and better and it's good to see New Zealand darts grow."
Tickets for the Auckland Darts Masters, presented by TAB and Burger King, are available from www.eventfinda.co.nz or the Trusts Arena Box Office.
Coverage is live on Sky Sport in New Zealand and will also be broadcast around the world through the PDC's series of international broadcast partners. ITV4 coverage in the UK will be shown from 6.30pm BST.