If everyone in a particular competition knows the current alerting and announcing rules that are in force and acts accordingly there wouldn't be any problems.
The truth is very different and there are probably as many 2 suited weak 2NT openings that don't get alerted (wrongly) as there are natural 2NT openings where no range is given (correctly).
I'm this situation I think it's better for next in hand to ask about the STOP 2NT as they do need to know whether it's natural and they'll probably need to know the range if it's natural before they lead so I see no harm in asking at a time when they have nothing better to do. It'll save time later and may help avoid a call for the director.
there are probably as many 2 suited weak 2NT openings that don't get alerted (wrongly) as there are natural 2NT openings where no range is given (correctly).
I don't think I've come across a 2-suited weak 2NT opening in about 10 years and I would be very surprised if anyone who played them didn't know they had to be alerted.
We used to have several partnerships playing Frellings and although these agreements have become more specific following blue book changes a few years ago we still get frequent 2NT openings which are weak and artificial often played with a monster NT (so 5 weak twos, possibly some natural). Frellings killed one of our sessions pre Covid for lack of any available defence. I suggested that an immediate pass should be forcing to at least x and partner should assume the doubler has a weak NT opener. An immediate pass of the response by a non-passed hand is similar. This allows a reasonable chance of penalising 2 level contracts. Something similar applies to 1S Mosso openings but where partner has passed so that an alleged hesitation doesn't prevent partner from taking some action. After 2 something Frellings openings allegations of hesitation were frequent even when passing after about 10 seconds.
Of course it would have been more sensible to ban Frellings from some sessions before it killed one and depleted numbers at others by deterring many relatively inexperienced partnerships. Unfortunately Club politics got in the way.
Comments
If everyone in a particular competition knows the current alerting and announcing rules that are in force and acts accordingly there wouldn't be any problems.
The truth is very different and there are probably as many 2 suited weak 2NT openings that don't get alerted (wrongly) as there are natural 2NT openings where no range is given (correctly).
I'm this situation I think it's better for next in hand to ask about the STOP 2NT as they do need to know whether it's natural and they'll probably need to know the range if it's natural before they lead so I see no harm in asking at a time when they have nothing better to do. It'll save time later and may help avoid a call for the director.
I don't think I've come across a 2-suited weak 2NT opening in about 10 years and I would be very surprised if anyone who played them didn't know they had to be alerted.
We used to have several partnerships playing Frellings and although these agreements have become more specific following blue book changes a few years ago we still get frequent 2NT openings which are weak and artificial often played with a monster NT (so 5 weak twos, possibly some natural). Frellings killed one of our sessions pre Covid for lack of any available defence. I suggested that an immediate pass should be forcing to at least x and partner should assume the doubler has a weak NT opener. An immediate pass of the response by a non-passed hand is similar. This allows a reasonable chance of penalising 2 level contracts. Something similar applies to 1S Mosso openings but where partner has passed so that an alleged hesitation doesn't prevent partner from taking some action. After 2 something Frellings openings allegations of hesitation were frequent even when passing after about 10 seconds.
Of course it would have been more sensible to ban Frellings from some sessions before it killed one and depleted numbers at others by deterring many relatively inexperienced partnerships. Unfortunately Club politics got in the way.