Bridge - The Scotsman 18/09/12

Bridge players love to adopt new conventions, but few have the time or the inclination to consider all the ramifications.

An unfamiliar partnership in the Board-a-Match in Lille had some serious disagreements on this board – and each had a valid argument.

South stretched to open a weak no-trump because of his five-card suit, and West stretched to find a penalty double. North-South had discussed their escape mechanism: redouble showed a single-suited hand, bidding a suit showed a two-suiter with the bid suit and a higher suit. North therefore redoubled. The normal response is 2C, allowing partner to pass with clubs or convert to her real suit, but South was a thoughtful player. In the unlikely event that partner did have clubs he was happy to compete to the three-level, so he bid 2D to show good clubs. He expected partner to pass with diamonds, in which case the lead would be up to his kings, or to bid her major.

North had a different take on 2D. She assumed partner had a doubleton club and had bid his own suit in case it might play better. With three-card support she chose to pass, as did everybody else. Five down vulnerable is not a great result, though it might have won the board if their East-West had bid game in spades.

Neither partner had done anything wrong, except fail to discuss further bidding after an agreed conventional bid. How would you play the sequence with your partner?