East agreed that his 5¨ bid was quite slow but stated that his
5ª bid, while a bit slow, had taken
at most 10-15 seconds not unreasonable for a call in the middle of a
slam-investigative auction.
West stated that he knew his side could make a
slam once East cue-bid 5¨, but he did not jump to 6¨ immediately because seven was still a
possibility. He also pointed out that his inference that East was concerned
about a heart lead (and would thus hold at least a doubleton) and his choice to
bid 6NT to protect his §K were errors
and could have worked out poorly but they were not predicated on East's
hesitation. East also indicated that his partnership had no way to systemically
show a distributional (say, six-five) slam try.
In response to a Committee member's question
North stated that, while in theory he agreed that the decision of whether to
make a high-level lead-directing double could require some lengthy
consideration, the double of 5© here was not in that category. With a near worthless
hand he had no trouble doubling the one suit in which he could stand a lead,
and thus, in his opinion the hesitation was entirely attributable to
East.
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