CRO again
N/S Experienced Pair (congress players) strong and 5
E/W Club players
S opens 1C (explained as may be 2)
W bids 3C (alerted)
N passes
E bids 3H
S passes
E passes
N enquires of the 3C bid and is told by W Clubs and Hearts and Doubles for T/O with 4S, 4D and 9hcp which is passed out and makes.
I am satisfied that E/W play CRO and believe that either C/H or D/S are allowed at level 4 (BB7E1 and 7E2) however
W actually had Spades and Clubs
E didn't give a full explanation that the bid could be S/D.
S had a 3334 12 count with KQJ Hearts.
N calls for a ruling
How do you rule?
Comments
I assume North asked East and got the (incomplete) explanation "Clubs and Hearts" whereas (assuming they play CRO over a possibly short club) the correct explanation is "Clubs and Hearts or Spades and Diamonds".
Firstly: the fact that the West hand did not match (the full) explanation is irrelevant (Unless they have done this before and East is alive to the possibility) - assuming EW can prove their agreement over a short club. We are probably going to have a misexplanation anyway.
With regard to the misexplanation you are going to have to find out what North would have done with the correct explanation - which could be "C/H or S/D" or even "We have no agreement over a short club but over a natural club it would be S/D" - and then find out what South would have done.
(It looks like NS play a strong NT - not that this should make any difference).
Note that if there is any misexplanation by the declaring side and they are aware of it, then the TD should have been called before play commenced.
South's hand is pretty irrelevant anyway - If NS have been damaged then they would only lose equity if they had made an "extremely serious error unrelated to the infraction" - this seems most unlikely.
The key points are: was there misinformation? if so: what would NS have done with the correct information?
Without that last information it is impossible to make a fair ruling.