lamford, on 2016-August-18, 08:00, said:
I think it (2nt) should be clubs and secondary diamonds, something like Kxxxx x Qx(x) AJxx(x), but this pair might not have had that agreement.
Having pretty much covered the 'ruling' issues, I believe this is a productive/useful spin-off.
Yes, I agree that 2nt should focus on clubs. When possible, we would like to use a tool which the opponents have given us to describe a hand which would normally be difficult/impossible to handle.
Five pieces in clubs and less strength than needed to bid 3
♣ seems about right for 2nt. With 5-1-3-4, we could just bite the bullet and bid 3
♦ NF.
With real diamond support AND G.F. strength, we could also bid 2nt, and then show the Diamonds next.
(Please, no jokes about spacing the 2nt bid to clarify.)