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 finals of AATBL Season 2025 now only moments away, the world asks itself:
- Our beloved president, HRH Prince Andrew II has been seen photobombing world leaders once again. WTF?
- Last year, Brad “won” the Asti, as a member of Killer B’s. His 2025 team, The Brandy Bunch, is in the Asti play-off this season. Can he pull it off in consecutive years?
- Speaking of consecutive years, in 2024 Cannonball was a Grand Bocce for the first time, playing as a member of Stormballs. This year, he’s with Barnballs and they enter the finals in second place. Can Cannonball take two in a row?
- There’s another sequence that is noteworthy. Since 2022, Barney has bounced between taking home the Asti and winning the Grand Bocce title. If Barnballs do win in 2025, this bizarre sequence will enter its fourth year. Can Barney keep bouncing?
- Motherchucker has played in a raft of grand finals in recent years, without taking home the trophy. Can he do it in 2025?
The road trip committee has finally come up with a plan. Will it be any good? Will Reg reach the destination without a flat tyre?
Countdown to next match: