I was watching that session and I recall thinking the 2
call as reasonable. It would be good to have the hand in front of us for discussion.
It's true that after 1
- 2
it is virtually impossible to fond the 4-4
fit unless you have some special agreements that few have. So there needs to be a good reason to give up on finding the spade fit. being confident of the diamond slam is such a reason. After 1
- 1
you could have a problem if, as will often be the case, partner does not have four spades. Maybe he then rebids in NT. Or maybe he raises 1
on three cards. How do you the tell pard: "Hey, we belong in at least 6
"?
High level pairs who have been playing together for years might well have an answer to this question. But the rest of us don't. So we look at the hand and we say "Well, yeah, possibly we have an 8 card
fit and possibly the hand should be played in
but right now I see a massive
fit and I am going to set
as trump and then explore for whether we a belong in 6 or 7. If I find that I have to sign off in 5
when that and 4
are both makin, that's too bad but I think this slight risk is worth it as a trade off for the advantages of setting trump now."
I am very confident that this general philosphy is correct. As to whether it applies in Jock's particular case, I recall thinking it reasonable but I don't recall the details of the hand.