Bendigo's Joseph Evans claims world 8-ball scotch doubles championship in Morocco

The 18-year-old late last month partnered with Queenslander Joshua Hands to land the under-18 scotch doubles title at the Ultimate Pool WEPF World Championships in Agadir, Morocco.

It was Evans' second time representing Australia, having been a part of the junior team in France in 2021.

Having now graduated from the junior ranks, the talented youngster has his sights set on qualifying for the Australian men's team.

Evans, who finished runner-up in singles at this year's under-18 nationals, admitted to heading to Morocco confident of success in some shape or form.

"There were six of us and we ended up coming third in the teams event," he said.

"In singles, I got to the last 32 out of 128, which I was pretty happy with."

But undoubtedly the highlight for Evans was his scotch doubles title win with Hands.

The pair defeated top-ranked Australians Toby Clack and Sean Dempsey seven frames to four in a 'mates versus mates' final.

The result has him eyeing selection in the national under-23 team for next year's world titles in Australia.

With Australia not having a national under-23 championship of its own, in order to achieve that goal, he will need to qualify for the Australian men's team.

He is already part-way to achieving that goal, having passed the first stage towards qualification before departing for Morocco.

While there is still plenty of work still to be done, Evans would relish another crack at a world championship.

"Hopefully I'll get to the world titles one or two more times and from there maybe win a singles title," he said.

"But I do have to get a lot better ... and put in a lot more practice.

"But with some hard work, I can give it a shot."

While things could not have gone much better for Evans on the table in Agadir, getting home from Morocco proved anything but smooth.

After missing a connecting flight to Dubai due to a two-hour delay in leaving Agadir, he was left stranded in Casablanca for six days.

"We missed our first flight and that screwed up our connecting flight, so we ended up staying an extra week," he said.

"It was a bit exhausting in the end.

"Casablanca is a nice place to look at, but I was just dying to get back home."

Evans competes locally in the Bendigo 8-Ball Inc competition with the Camp Hotel in Eaglehawk on Monday nights and Manchester Arms on Wednesday nights.

He finished the last Wednesday night season as a premiership player and also topped the competition aggregate.

Evans, who only recently turned 18, has been playing competitive 8-ball since he was 11, having first picked up a cue at the Courthouse Hotel in Eaglehawk, when it was run by his father Ross and his partner Kathy Howard.

He first tried out for the state team when he was 12.

Evans has fond memories of his earliest 8-ball experiences, playing against the adults at the pub.

"All the adults tried to egg me on to try and play and after a while they were telling me I was going to go somewhere," he said.

"It's sort of come true."

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