I feel that the approach to the press was perhaps a little ill conceived.
Instead of presenting a 'hands up' defeatist attitude & giving the press plenty of chance to dust off their pre conceptions of the Morris & give the news presenters a chance to have a patronising snigger, maybe they should have presented the press with images & a story about the younger, exciting & vigerous aspect of ritual dance that we have. Then go on to say that this is a good start, but if we don't want it to die out we need more youngsters involved.
Present the positive.
The positives being cotswold teams like Pesceason, White/Dog Rose, Moulton (2younger teams) & many others . The numerous Rapper sides & the work of Damien Barber & The Roadshow, & the crowd pleasers such as the good border sides.
Lets not give them chance to snigger, lets wipe the smiles off their faces.
Cheers
Les (creaking old sword dancer)