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 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.
As AATBL Season 2025 lurches chaotically forward, with the presidency of HRH Prince Andrew II under ever-increasing pressure, the sporting world now asks itself:
- When will players be banned from using the league as a means of flogging their tacky clothing releases?
- How much does Serge charge for an Orange Baby?
- What’s all this about Big Wheelers being an anagram?
- Why are gerbils so special anyway?
- When will the state government ban chihuahuas from cafés in the western suburbs?
- Is Mercurochrome the antiseptic of choice for a chihuahua bite?
- Did the poor unsuspecting pooch require some kind of injection to prevent infection?
- As Mochu is the league’s only singleton and he’s now sitting undefeated at the top of the ladder, how long will it take for the “unfair advantage” whining to start?
- There are increasing questions about the organisation of a road-trip for 2025. Why is the road-trip organising committee so useless?
Countdown to next match: