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The Darrawella Club has the finest collection of memorabilia of all planters’ clubs in the country, dating back to 1870, which features the participants in the first cricket encounter between Darrawella Club and Radella Club. These two clubs have not only had a long history of sporting rivalry, but they were also the most prominent sporting planters’ clubs at national competition level in Sri Lanka.
Tragically, the original Radella clubhouse was burnt to the ground in the 1960s and along with it, its entire collection of memorabilia. To ensure that no such ill-fortune can similarly impact on the fabulous collection at Darrawella, History of Ceylon Tea took along photographer Sarath Perera and his team to the grand old Club. There, over a period of three days, Sarath and his crew painstakingly removed each and every photograph from their frames, digitally photographed them and then replaced them in their original framework.
History of Ceylon Tea is truly proud to present this collection to you and our sincere thanks to the Club office bearers, who recognised the importance of this exercise and who accordingly, extended their fullest cooperation to ensure its success.
A point of note on how we have presented the photos in this gallery.
We have presented each photo in three styles or views. The first (top row) is in its original or existing form, untouched up and with the existing backing boards. These backing boards carry the descriptions and the names and so on but not all are legible. This view is to give the browser an idea of what the original photograph looks likes in its present condition.
The second style (centre row) contains a touched up version of the original/existing photo without any backing boards. Thus, the photograph area is viewable largest in this style.
The third style (bottom row) is where the original/existing photo has been touched up and re-coloured (primarily to grayscale) and where a common backing board has been added. Descriptions and names have been freshly transcribed onto this backing board so all the details are clearly legible in this style.
The Darrawela Club Memorabilia
Enjoy!
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