Fletcher’s Fields, the heart of Ontario rugby for 58 years, is closing. Here’s why it matters to so many people

Fletcher’s Fields was never the prettiest of places, but it always felt like home to Nathalie Bendavid.
She would fly down 19th Avenue in Markham, windows down and music blaring on the type of summer day that felt hot enough to melt skin. She’d spot the sun-washed green sign and turn into the dirt parking lot in front of the rugby pitches, slowing to a crawl to navigate the bumps and dips.
If she was there early enough, she could still smell the fresh-cut grass. And she wouldn’t leave until the sun disappeared behind the trees, spending the walk back to the car slapping away mosquitoes.
Bendavid, who represented Canada at the 2009 Rugby World Cup, spent decades at Fletcher’s, first playing there in 1997, then bringing her husband, later her kids and eventually the players she was coaching. She is one of thousands for whom Fletcher’s was home, the place to be on hot summer Saturdays with friends and family.
Now, Fletcher’s Fields is closing for good. The six-field facility, home to five GTA rugby clubs and Rugby Ontario, will host its final game in September, the final chapter in a 58-year history.
Fletcher’s is shutting down for a number of economic reasons, according to Steve Hall, its chair and president. It hasn’t seen a major renovation in three decades. Costs have grown in recent years, with an all-volunteer staff becoming part-time, then full-time. Revenue — some from the bar above the clubhouse — has waned as people drink less and leave sooner. COVID-19 delivered a big blow, too.
And the needs of the five clubs that call Fletcher’s home have changed. No longer does it make sense for the three Toronto clubs — the Saracens, Nomads and Scottish — to invest in a field outside the city. It’s become harder for players to make the commute up to the farm fields of northern Markham, navigating the traffic that snarls Highway 404 at practically any hour.
So in 2021, Fletcher’s was sold to the city of Markham for $21.5 million, and the property will be handed over to the city at the end of October, Hall said. The city is still deciding how to use the land, it said in an email. Each team will go its own way, moving closer to home to grow its program there.
But for so many generations, rugby lived at Fletcher’s.
“It’s just a beautiful mosaic of the rugby experience,” said Hall, who is also co-president of the Aurora Barbarians, one of Fletcher’s five clubs. “It created a sense of community when all the teams were playing their games on a Saturday. That, I think, will be the hardest thing to replace.”
Fletcher’s was established in 1966, purchased by Rugby Ontario on behalf of five clubs, who couldn’t own land as they weren’t incorporated yet, according to Fletcher’s CEO Pat Hodgins. It was named after Denis Fletcher, a pioneer of rugby in Ontario.
The Ajax Wanderers sold their stake to the Barbarians, then of Toronto, in 1972. It has been the same five clubs — the Markham Irish Canadians are the fifth — ever since.
The venue was far from perfect.
The parking lot could be a mess. When it was full, which was often, cars lined 19th Avenue. On a recent weekend, a tractor couldn’t fit down the road and knocked a number of mirrors off.
The change rooms were always a work in progress. They were once men’s only, forcing the women to take turns showering in the referees’ room or wait until the men were done, according to Barb Di Nardo, who started playing at Fletcher’s in 1989.
That changed when the building was renovated in the early 1990s. But the toilets still sometimes didn’t flush all the way, and the water from the taps tasted metallic.
Some high school players would ask Bendavid, their coach, if the water was safe. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know, but I’ve been drinking it for 25 years.’ ”
The field could be rock-hard. In July, when the rain never came and the pitch dried up, it felt like hitting pavement. It was best in the fall — lush, green and soft. In the early years, each team took care of its own pitch, cutting and marking the grass.
The same went for the bar that sat atop the clubhouse. Staffed by each club on rotating weekends, the easy-drinking light lagers — Steam Whistle, Canadian, Coors Light — flowed freely.
“It was like something out of the Thunderdome,” said Di Nardo, who also coached at Fletcher’s. “It was hectic and everyone was up there getting beers. You got beers from friends. They probably lost so much money, because you gave away beer.”
Later, Fletcher’s hired staff to run the bar. Players still flocked there.
What happened on the field was important, too. Kids played at Fletcher’s and grew up to be Olympians. Olympians grew older and came back to Fletcher’s.
Chloe Daniels, who just won silver in rugby sevens at the Paris Olympics, has been playing at Fletcher’s with the Barbarians since she was 10. Her dad played there before her, as did her sister. Even one of her national team coaches — from Scotland, no less — once played at Fletcher’s.
“If you played there, you probably remember it,” Daniels said. “We’re losing a piece of our home and a place that everyone loved to gather.”
Fletcher’s hosted Argentina, England, Wales, Ireland, Japan and the U.S., among other countries, for games against Canada. It hosted the McCormick Cup, Ontario’s senior men’s first team championship, for decades. Touring sides from all over the world visited. Training sessions for the 2015 Pan Am Games were held at Fletcher’s.
But everyone knows that’s not what made Fletcher’s special. It was the people.
Volunteers like Stan Armitage, Stan Woodburn, John Reich, John Mead and Jim Twomey. Players like Colin Baker, who played in matches for five decades and was a caretaker for two, and Nick Mitchell, who was around since the ‘70s. Friends like Freddy Miller, who loved Fletcher’s so much he had his ashes spread there. General managers like Kevin and Stacey Billington, who have run the place for the last 10 years.
Fletcher’s has changed in recent years, with people leaving sooner and chatting less. Beer sales are down, Hall said, and it has become less of a social hub.
That erosion may continue as Fletcher’s closes.
“It probably fragments (the rugby community),” said Hodgins, who first played at Fletcher’s in 1973 with the Irish Canadians. “You won’t get the same intermingling of players and supporters that you had at a location like Fletcher’s.”
That’s what made Fletcher’s unique. On a busy day, it would take Di Nardo the better part of an hour just to walk from one end to the other. She’d stop to chat every few feet with someone new.
Sometimes, she would never make it to the game she was headed for, instead stopping to take in a different match with old friends, wasting away another sunny summer Saturday spent at Fletcher’s Fields.