How many questions about an opening bid before it's UI?

ACBL, Midchart, Dealer and Vulnerablity irrelevant. No hand records.
Partner and I are both BLMs. Opponents are both SLMs.

I opened 1C [ART, 15+, any shape] which partner alerted (approximately
in time. He is sometimes a slow alerter).

LHO asks for an explanation and gets "15 or more points and the club
bid is artificial".

LHO asks "could he have a weak no trump" (may have intended to ask
instead "do you play weak no trump"). Partner explains "No, 15 or more
points. I don't know anything about his shape right now".

LHO asks "so when would he open 1NT instead of 1C." Partner answers
"1NT would be completely different hand".

LHO may have asked another question or two, but ended up passing.

My partner ends up declaring (3NT, I believe). RHO leads a club and I
call the TD. When she arrived, I explained that the "lead may have
been 'inspired' [demonstrably suggested] by unauthorized information".

When I layed my dummy, LHO was somehow surprised to see a balanced 16
count. (Didn't listen, didn't comprehend, didn't understand. I don't
know. Language wasn't a problem. LHO and I are both third generation
of the same ethnic background and all 4 of us at the table have West
Coast accents).

When the (weak) TD arrived at the table, she basically ruled that the
lead was obvious (wrong thing to say in any case. I would have said
"play the hand and we'll have a look after you complete play").
Whether the ruling was right or wrong wasn't something that I was
going to try to determine at least until after the hand was played. I
don't even remember the result. I had called for a ruling and had
gotten one. I moved on.

It appears that my LHO talked to the head of our directors'
association and complained that I had "accused him of cheating". Well,
first, it isn't him in any case. It would be his partner's acting on
the UI that would be a viloation (not even cheating anymore than a
false start caused by the center sneezing in American Football is
cheating).

Second, he mumbled something about impropper disclosure, but I am
pretty sure that it was his own misunderstanding or failure to
comprehend implications.

The ACBL alert procedures specifically state that players are expected
to be prepared to defend against strong 1C openers and that no
prealert is required for them.

So, my question for the group, whether you agree with me about calling
the director or not in this particular case, is "How many questions
can your partner ask about a bid and then pass before it demonstrably
suggests a lead?"




QB: Yellow 41! Yellow Fourty-....
Center: HAAACHOO!
<Contact><No snap><Flags fly>
QB: ... one. Hut!
Ref: False Start #51 Offense. Simulated the start of play