All-England competitions could be absolutely dreadful. I have just spent forty years researching trad music in the northwest of England. I can just imagine the London judges dismissing the Cumbrian entrants(far too Scottish), the Lancastrians(far too Irish), the Cheshires and Shropshires(far too Welsh).And just imagine the arguments. Are fiddle ornaments English, or a dreaded foreign importation?Is that tune really called Yorkshire Lasses, or is it called the Top of Cork Road or Father O'Flynn? That D/G melodeon: is it traditional, or was it invented by Peter Kennedy?
And what about the Geordies? The EFDSS CD "Hardcore English" didn't have any NE musicians on it at all, as far as I can remember.