My take was that by transforming "Folk Club of the Year" into the "Roots" award, the BBC have widened the eligibility and are reflecting that Folk Clubs are less important than they were. That a Band (The Levellers) won it this year does not mean that a Festival, Acoustic Session, Folk Club, Other Organisation or Individual would not win it another year, assuming the Awards are not scrapped in BBC cost cutting.

I've heard the tale that Folk Club of the Year was voted for by the "artists", but I've yet to meet an artist who was ever asked to vote, so I take that weevilly ship's biscuit with a large pinch of sea salt.