World Cup more than a kick for Britons

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 | 7:11 a.m.

Mark McGarry was waiting at the pub for his three children to show up in jerseys from England's national soccer team and court-jester hats striped with the colors of the Union Jack.

It was 5:45 in the morning, and hundreds of Brits were drunk or getting there at the Crown and Anchor, building to a fevered pitch for their country's debut in the World Cup, that once-every-four-years event that draws more viewers to televisions than voters to polls in most countries across the planet.

His American wife had complained, McGarry said almost gleefully, that when she told the children to put on "something nice," they came down the stairs wearing England's shirt.

"And all three were born in Las Vegas!" McGarry said.

McGarry's family may be a microcosm of the Las Vegas Valley's English community, many of whom hold on to at least three of their culture's signposts - meeting in pubs, watching and playing football (or soccer, if you prefer), and, of course, speaking with their accents - while at the same time adapting to life in the States.

It wasn't the first time his children - Nick, 11; Evan, 12; Laura, 15 - had been to the Crown and Anchor, either. McGarry, a mortgage broker, had managed the pub for nine years. And he's brought football into their lives as well, being one of those who introduced televised European matches to the pub in the late '90s, as well as becoming a sponsor for a local team, the Partick Thistle (named after a Scottish professional team).

Many of the local Brits at the England-Paraguay match said the pub on Tropicana Avenue may be as close as it gets to a British, or English, association, club and store rolled up in one.

David Martin, 42, who, like McGarry, watched the match on a small TV on the second floor with a group of regulars, said most U.S. natives don't understand what he called "the pub culture" of Great Britain, and why it remains the focal point of the British community here.

"It's a social thing - an open forum, where you can talk about politics and football. It's a European thing. Americans aren't like that."

Martin said the normal functions of a homeland association or club - helping the newly arrived find the bare necessities like a place to live or a job - often take place at the pub.

Similarly, the stocky striker, who plays for an indoor soccer team called the Vegas Bulldogs, said the only English holiday he could remember celebrating during his decade in Las Vegas also took place under the pub's roof - New Year's Eve. Of course, they lift their pints at 4 p.m. - midnight across the Atlantic.

Even wider acts of charity are cast off with a pint - like a collection taken up last year after the bombings in London.

As for football, most Brits here seem to play it, watch it, or both - and bring that with them here as well. "It's definitely part of our social life," said James Pearce, 35, who has lived here six years and works as a mortgage broker.

Like many immigrant communities, it's hard to say how many English - or, for that matter, Scots, Welsh, and Northern Irish - live here. Some of the English at the pub estimated their numbers locally at between 35,000 and 40,000. The British Consulate in Los Angeles doesn't know. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the number of total British-born locals at 6,183 in 2004 - 4,038 from England.

However many there are, it seems that one aspect of the melting pot theory may be at work among Brits here as well - they have more in common here than at home. Put another way, most differences or rivalries - whether sports or political - tend to disappear on this side of the ocean.

"I've met people here (from England) with totally different backgrounds - who support different soccer teams, for example - and we've become best friends," Martin said, pointing to a friend named Nick who is a West Ham fan, unlike he, who roots for Tottenham.

"That would never happen back home," he concluded.

Apart from the Crown and Anchor, a place many local English natives seek out is the eight-year-old British Foods Inc., a store that sells what manager Margaret Johnson called "a little bit of home (that makes) you adjust a little bit better" - including bangers and mash, a sausage-and-potato dish.

Many of those watching Saturday's match said they missed a "good cuppa" tea, sweet biscuits and Indian restaurants on every corner. They also miss good manners - from saying "good morning" to letting someone pass you on the road.

But they also seem to plug into the local economy quite well; many make the leap from working on cruise ships back home to working on casino floors on the Strip. A good number also work in real estate - an occupation where that other cultural standby, the accent, seems to be a plus, according to Matt Wratten, 22, who had just come down from the second floor of the Crown and Anchor after England's 1-0 victory.

Wratten, who works as a wholesale mortgages representative, said, "I don't want to lose my accent. No matter what you say, people think it's real, it's factual."