Historical notes
The first tennis courts at the Dopolavoro Ferroviario saw the light at the end of the 1920s when the DLF moved to its current location. Swept away by World War II, reconstruction in the postwar period was slow and only in the late ‘fifties did the first two courts come back into service with today’s configuration only being ready at the end of the ‘sixties. The geodetic structure of today’s Court 4 was built in 1989. Over the years the courts were under direct and indirect management until today’s Cicconetti Tennis Club.
The Club
One evening in March 2012, my brother-in-law Alessandro Tosi, former category B player and long-standing Tennis Coach at the Dopolavoro Ferroviario, says to me: "Roberto is going to overhaul the management of the Club, want to give me a hand?” I am doubtful, my day job takes up a lot of my time, I have no experience in the sports sector, and I can’t tell one end of a racquet from the other, but the idea of being able to dedicate my time to something different from my routine takes my fancy right from the start.
A few days later we meet up with the other founder members (Alessandro, Giovanni, Marco, Paolo, Sara, Tiziana, Umberto). We share our experiences and passions, our desire to get involved and our desire to bring back to life what, for some of them, had been the place where they grew up, as people and as athletes, and the place where they wanted to have their children grow up in the name of the same values.
We decide to go ahead anyway, in spite of the situation being (almost) desperate: the building structures are falling apart, member numbers are reduced to the bone and the SAT (Tennis School) semi-deserted. It is 2 April 2012; of one thing only we are absolutely sure, what we will call the club. Today there are about 150 members, we have a hundred or so kids aged from 5 to 16, 6 courts all refurbished, federal tournaments for all categories and the deep-seated desire to do well.
The adventure continues.....thanks to everybody.
Roberto Raffaelli
President and Founder
Arnaldo Cicconetti
"Cicco who’s going to win the tournament?"
Arnaldo was our point of reference, he was the club; whatever the activity, tournament or event it was he who organised it.
It was in fact during the historic Settebello tournament that all his personality and love for the club and for tennis really emerged.
More than two hundred members, each with their own problems, with no help from technology but with loads of patience topped by so many exhilarating moments.... he managed to satisfy everyone. The evening of the awards ceremony with the stands crowded he entertained the public with his poems and jokes until late evening like a character out of Zelig... Not to mention the perennial question the kids used to ask while he was struggling with the pairings... Cicco, who’s going to win the tournament? We cannot show the answer here but many know it... just as they know this great character who is missed and will be missed so much by all of us!!!!
