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.
Now that the AATBL 2026 season has exploded into life, the sporting world asks itself:
- With Beastly Justice on top of the ladder after Round 1, are Serge and BoB the winning combination for 2026?
- What the hell is Beastly Justice anyway?
- Is it too soon to make conclusions? After one round, each of the entities that played two games won at least one of them. Are the results generally becoming closer?
Now that the long-promised all-terrain bocce stadium and clubrooms facility is nearing completion, will there be an argument about naming rights?- Did Brad absent himself from Round 1 because he’s having second thoughts about his team being called Soft?
- Soft is now proudly sponsored by Sorbent. This gives rise to so many questions.
- What will Banker and Brad do with their millions?
- Which playing entity will be next to embrace the corporate world?
- Will a sponsor insist on naming rights for the stadium?
- The Young Ones are in last place. Is youth wasted on the young?
- When will the President’s Curse begin to take effect?
Countdown to next match: