nige1, on 2013-June-29, 19:31, said:
As I understand it the primary purpose of the convention was to protect the partnership from damage due to Murray's tendency to open very light in third and fourth seat. I would think since it got to the point that Drury felt that he needed a convention to cope with these openings, at that point the openings could no longer be classified as psychs (at least by modern understanding) but were in fact a matter of (disclosable) partnership understanding. I think that back in those days very light openings in third and fourth seat were uncommon, while perhaps merely light openings were not quite as uncommon, but still not common. IAC my point is that once Drury became aware of Murray's tendency, the openings were no longer psychs, so the convention could hardly have been invented to control psychs in the modern sense. Rather it was designed to "control psychs" in the Kaplan-Sheinwold sense, i.e, they had a partnership understanding that an opening bid might be (very) light, and they wanted a way to ask "did you open light this time?" Drury was not intended, as I understand it, to ask the question "do you really have a legitimate (including possibly light) opening, or are you psyching?"
This opinion may be colored by the fact that I play, and have always played, that a Drury bid shows a fit for opener's major, though I do understand that some do not (or did not, way back when) play it that way — and I don't know whether Drury's original version showed a fit or not.