Congratulations!
You are here – the website of the Australian All-Terrain Bocce League, the spiritual home of the world’s greatest game.
Based on the action comic book of the same name, the AATBL was initially a TV show in black and white. Nowadays it has all the colour of the inside of a travel sickness bag and it brings together the world’s finest exponents of a game that requires the wisdom of Solomon, the cunning of a fox, the hide of a rhinoceros, the eye of a newt, the legs of a chair and balls of steel.
There are some who will tell you that the AATBL is merely a vehicle by which a select group of men can get together to drink beer wearing baggy shorts and shirts so tatty they can’t ordinarily be worn in public. Others will lie to you.
Based in Perth, Western Australia, the AATBL plays the ancient game on Sunday afternoons in a “home and away” season from February to September, about once a month.
Being a reasonably egalitarian competition, we do not discriminate against any player regardless of how distasteful he may be. We even have a member who once worked in the Department of Sport and Recreation.
Everyone will make a prediction. Some poor souls may wear self-aggrandising T-shirts. Only one will take home Glory, and that’s only because it is a soccer team what don’t got no self respect. None at all. Play a man’s game for God’s sake.
For the last few seasons, the teams have been re-cast using “the blender” at the end of each season. Players’ names are put into the blender, to randomise the teams for the following season. For more details of the current teams, see News and Teams.
After eight years of playing as a teams-based league, the AATBL changed to a hybrid format in 2021 and now plays with a mix of teams and solo players.
Although it has been suggested that playing as a singleton offers an advantage because those in teams don’t have the advantage of warming up, that hypothesis isn’t supported by the results. Also, a team need only have one player turn up to a fixture, but if a singleton misses a fixture, he forfeits it.
With the excitement of the AATBL 2025 finals showing no sign of subsiding any time soon, the sporting world asks itself:
- After an underwhelming home-and-away season, how did Artificial Indifference get its act together so unexpectedly to seize the championship?
- The obvious flipside of that question is about Motherchucker. With him only having lost only one game all season (OK, with one forfeit as well), how did the minor premier get bundled out in the prelims, losing to the last-placed Big Wheelers?
- Given Motherchucker’s stats that kinda suggest a weakness in the big matches, and the collywobbles so clearly on display at Lake Claremont, will the “Motherchoker” tag stick?
- Brad took home the Asti in 2024 as a member of Killer B’s, and repeated the dose in 2025 as a member of The Brandy Bunch. Can he achieve the three-peat in 2026?
- Stormin’ Norman Hound Dog Taylor also repeated his 2024 performance, having been a Grand BOCCE then, through the victory of Stormballs. As he’s going away for a couple of seasons, will he be eligible for a hat-trick upon his return to the fold?
- Will Mochu play as a singleton yet again in 2026?
- What’s this about some announcement from the king at the AGM?
- Andy was president in 2025 and his team, The Brandy Bunch, managed to seize the Asti. Is the president’s curse back? Who will be pres in 2026?
Countdown to next match: