Hi Elaine,

I'm only a club director but I believe all South is entitled to is the partnership agreement (Hearts and Clubs) unless East has a history of getting the system wrong in which case South is entitled to know that too.

We also need to see the East hand. If they had 3 hearts they would have a hard time convincing most directors that they hadn't been influenced by  the unauthorised information ( to east) that their partner thought they had Hearts and Clubs. Having as many as 8 clubs would help their case though I guess.

If they really had NO Hearts and 8 clubs then the 3 club bid is probably automatic athough you might argue that having heard their partner make a "free bid" of 2 Hearts presumably showing some values they should rebid 4 or 5 clubs.

Not so straight forward I'm afraid but that's how it goes sometimes.

We can't really make a decision on how the director should rule without quite a bit more information.

On reflection, I'm glad I'm not a director. Who needs the grief ?

Regards,

Barry

I agree with Barry except I think it’s a more clear-cut case for no adjustment.

West has UI (from the alert and explanation) so may not choose from logical alternatives one favoured by the UI.

But with 8 clubs and no hearts I see no logical alternative to bidding 3C.
Nor would bidding 4 (or more) Clubs be a logical alternative for the sub-set of the field who chose to bid only 2C first time.

East has no UI so is free to bid anything

I kinda agree with Barry.

The reason I have a kinda in here is that weaker players often get in this situation.  They will use a 2D transfer, and then rebid 3D and expect their partner to take that as just diamonds.  Stanggeringly, often their partner figures it out.  Usually there is a fair amount of body language at the table that makes it cearer what is happening, but sometimes there's not.  For that reason I'm not completely ruling out that the explanation was faulty:  do they really play that it is two way, clubs + hearts or just clubs (and if it is just clubs they repeat that suit), evn if they don't recognise that themselves.

It is hard to tell here because of the doubles, easier to tell if they had the same auction but with North passing 2H.  But I'd still be keen to understand why West didn't bid 3H (presuming they have something like 4+H and short clubs).

Leaving all that aside, without the hands, it is impossible to tell whether any potentially incomplete explanation actually led to the poor result.

I've probably known Scott for about 25 years and he's only ever agreed with me twice so I'm taken "kinda agree" as a huge leap forward

I kinda agree with Scott that there is a fair chance that there was some body language or what they used to call "That old Black Magic" going on here which is what I was driving at about East only bidding 3 Clubs.

I understood that 2 Clubs showed Hearts and Clubs - There was no mention of just clubs initially. The pass of 3 clubs was indeed fortunate.

I do want to apologise to the late great Frank Sinatra for dragging that old black magic into this, I'm a huge fan.

Colin:  I understand what they say their agreement is.  But I was speculating that their may be a extra part of their agreement that they themselves don't appreciate... that if they pull partner's hearts preference to clubs then that means they only had clubs all along, and hence the proper explanation of their call is that it is C+H or just C. 

I'm not saying that is a recognised treatment, or a good one, but I suspect that if I took west aside after the hand and asked them what the auction (1NT) 2C (P) 2H (P) 3C means they would tell me it is just clubs.

Often there is some body language that make it even clearer at the table, but some poeple play like this anyway.  If that is the case then, in my opinion, this problem becomes a mistaken explanation issue but without seeing the hands I cannot say whether or not that ought to lead to a score adjustment.  I strongly suspect that it would no lead to a score adjustment.

Barry:  Hi there mate.  25 might be light - we are getting old.  Have a good xmas, and please pass on my best to your boss.

I came upon this query as I have a similiar one which I will post later. 

with this query, if the explanation from West was a correct explanation of their system, surely this is a very clear case of UI that East is not entitled to use.  West has bid their preference between clubs and hearts.