Guardian 24102/Brendan – flagging a bit!

France	United States	United Kingdom	Norway

Solving time approx. 10 minutes

Brendan is also Virgilius in the Indy, so I was expecting some thematic content in a reasonably straightforward puzzle – and I wasn’t to be disappointed. I looked at 10 and 12 first and quickly got the theme, although 3dn held me up a bit at the end until I got the crossing W.

Across
9 T(R,ICOL=loci rev)OUR – I was helped by expecting what the answer would be before looking at the clue.
10 S(TAR)S – see 12
11 OUT,SWAM(i) – took far too long to equate crawling with swimming, one of the last answers I got.
12 S(TRIPE)S – got this thematic answer very quickly along with 10.
13 GLORY – Old Glory is the nickname of the American flag.
14 CASEBOOKS – not sure about the wordplay though. Is this a reference to Dr. Finlay’s Casebook? [Much more sensible suggestion from CarlH is The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. ]
16 RED WHITE AND BLUE – see for yourself above!
19 SUBMARINE (as number 1)* – “at sea” being a very apposite anagrind.
21 BAC(k)UP – I needed the checking letters before remembering that this is a place.
22 FINE LEG (feeling)* – it’s a fielding position, so cricketer is quite a loose definition. Perhaps a “perhaps” is required?
23 PENN,ANT – ref. William Penn, who was a Quaker (Society of Friends).
24 ATE IN – “pub after eight, say” being a slightly confusing homophone indicator.
25 UNION,JACK
Down
1 S(T(erro)R)ONG,ARMS
2 D(1)R,TRO(A)D
3 NO(R)WAY – nice &lit., as Norway is indeed a kingdom.
4 PO(E)M – Pom being Australian slang for an Englishman.
6 AS,CRIB(b)ED
7 SA(PP)HO – PP inside O=love,HAS, all reversed. Also &lit, as she wrote love poetry (to both men and women – she was known as Sappho the Lesbian because she was from Lesbos, and that’s where we get the word from).
15 S,WEEPS,TAKE
18 LACK,A,DAY – it appears that “moment of glory” defines “day”, so it’s probably referring to a line from a poem that I don’t know. [Or, as suggested by Testy, just as in phrases like “every dog has his day” etc. ]
21 BANANA – nice cryptic definition, but I don’t suppose anyone was fooled for long.
22 FLAG – double definition, and part of the theme.