| COUNTY | Any one of the UK's regional divisions once called shires, often with an official flag or flower (6) |
| OBLASTS | Regional divisions in Russia |
| STARSANDBARS | Informally, the first official flag of the Confederate States of America |
| REDENSIGN | Official flag of the British Merchant Navy (3,6) |
| IRONAGE | Resolution of mostly regional division amongst archaeologists |
| BACKDOWN | Concede defeat, being in lower division once more? |
| GEO | General Motors division, once |
| HUNDRED | Five score in county division once (7) |
| STUDIO | ____ flat, a small one often with an open-plan living area (6) |
| STRIKE | A hit, such as that delivered with a hammer when the proverbial iron is hot; or, from the act of lowering a flag or sail, a refusal to work as a protest (6) |
| BUNGEE | A ship's triangular or swallowtailed flag or pennant bearing the colours or emblem of its owner's yacht club (6) |
| UNITED | Soccer team from one of the UK'S capitals (6) |
| NOTARY | Witness with an official stamp |
| PENNON | From the Latin meaning "feather", the tapering ensign of a medieval knight-bachelor; or, a flag or streamer attached to a lance (6) |
| WITWIG | Word for a back and forth or to and fro motion, thus for a wave of a flag; or, the message duly waved or whiffled from place to place (6) |
| RESIDE | Have one's home in the shires, I declare! (6) |
| ENSIGN | National flag or colours flown by a ship, nation or regiment, such as a "Red Duster"; or, a standard-bearer (6) |
| WELLS | One of the UK's smallest cities; or, the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds (5) |
| NEIGHS | Negative MPs shouted out cries from the Shires? (6) |
| UNIONS | Couplings for pipes; emblematic devices on the upper inner corners of flags; or, organisations for workers (6) |
