I grew up in the North West and remember local festivals always having morris dancers performing: groups of young girls with pom poms dressed very much like American cheerleaders. At the same time I was also aware of a different sort of morris dancer: groups of adult men in much more traditional looking costumes.

It makes sense that the style of competitive morris changed to meet the judging criteria. I wonder what would have happened if the judging criteria had been along the lines of more qualitative judgments on historical authenticity?