I would definitely reply 1♥ without the double and decided to do it anyway. When Anna rebid 2♣ I assumed she had a very long Club suit. I also knew that she was likely void in Hearts, as I have seven and both opponents have them. Removing to 2♥ wouldn't help here, it's equally bad (but might not get doubled). I did think about redoubling 2♣, which Anna assures me she would indeed have taken as an escape. That might get us to the decent spot of 2♠, which can make lots of tricks on a cross-ruff.
At the other tables the contracts were 4♠x-1 by South (helpful ♦A lead), 3♠-1 and 2♥-2 by North. So not a good board for North-South.
Perhaps chastened by this misadventure we bid rather conservatively, and played 3 of a major many times. This was nearly always the right thing to do, as the cards lay badly, though didn't feel right at aggregate scoring.
Here's one we did bid game on, albeit the wrong game:
Playing a strong NT West opened 1♦. With 19 points I'm too strong to overcall so started with a double. In response Anna jumped to 2♥. We weren't clear on whether this jump shows a decent hand (7-10 say, with 4+ Hearts), or just good Hearts. I bid my Spade suit hoping Anna could rebid her Hearts if she did have length, but instead she supported my Spades with only two. My slam inquiry of 4♣ was quickly closed down and I was left to play 4♠.
It takes extra concentration to play what you know is the wrong contract.
I got a Diamond lead. With no extra entries to dummy I can't ruff out the Hearts, so have to rely on getting them right first time (either a finesse or dropping the Queen). But first I drew trumps. When they split 4-2 I had three trump losers, but this wasn't necessarily fatal, as the defence hadn't touched Clubs yet. My plan was to get rid of the last trump then rely on Hearts coming in. Even though it meant further weakening my trumps I played a fourth round to draw East's master trump, so that he couldn't ruff in during the Hearts. This was a rare time to break The Rule of One and draw a master trump.
Once trumps were drawn I played the King of Hearts and lead up to dummy. Crunch time. I knew that the Club honours were split (with KQJ West would have lead one) so to have enough points to open I thought West had to have the Queen of Hearts. I also knew she had 5 Diamonds and 2 Spades, so my only hope was 5422 shape with doubleton Queen of Hearts. Not impossible. I therefore played Hearts from the top. It didn't work, and because I'd drawn that extra trump I went three off. But I took consolation from the fact I think I played it the right way.
The one good thing about the Heart finesse failing was that it meant 4♥ was unlikely to make. However, on one other table North made 1♠+2, when South only replied 1♥ to the double, and on another North made 1♠+1 when he just overcalled instead of doubling. On the last table North made 3NT+3, after the Heart finesse miraculously won (West ducked the Queen of Hearts, perhaps a misclick). So 4♥ wasn't the popular contract I assumed.
Overall we lost our table by 110 and the match by 1230.
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