West reiterated that he would have bid
4¨ had he been told
that North's major was hearts. He said that, since hearts was an 'unbid' suit,
he thought East might have long hearts with South; in any event he thought that
East would have to bid over 3©.
East, who knew that North had clubs and
hearts, said he had no fit for West, modest values and only three hearts. So
when 3© came around
to him he passed. South said he had been thinking about his own spade holding
when he wrote his explanation of North's 2NT bid and he simply wrote spades
inadvertently instead of hearts as North's second suit. He never realized that
he had not written hearts. In the defense of 3© West said he led the
¨K, won perforce in
dummy. When declarer then played a club to the queen, West won his ace and
panicked, playing ace and another spade. Declarer then (somehow) managed to
escape with only four losers. When the Committee asked West to explain why he
had not bid 3¨
directly over the double of 2NT or later over 3©, given the similarity in his defensive
prospects against any of the other suits, he could give no reason. East/West
also confirmed that East's pass of 3© was against their system and that it, rather than the
misinformation, might have been responsible for their poor result.
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