Bidding up the line

Playing online bridge last night with Xwing, I picked up this hand:
♠A 9 8 7 6 4 3 2 ♥A 10 6 3 ♦Q ♣ --.

Partner opened 1♣. I responded 1♠ and partner rebid 3♥. I have agreements about this bid with some of my partners, but not with Xwing. Puzzled, I looked again and saw that I had not responded 1♠ as I thought -- I had bid 1♥ instead!

I don't think there's a good way to recover, but the good news is that we had found a 4-4 fit. What would you do? I finally decided to bid 6♥. I have an eight-card suit on the side -- let's keep that a secret, okay?

These are all four hands:

                ♠ Q
                ♥ K 7 5 2
                ♦ A K J
                ♣ Q J 10 9 2
♠ 10                           ♠ K J 5
♥ Q 9 8                        ♥ J 4
♦ 10 9 7 4 3                   ♦ 8 6 5 2
♣ A K 8 4                      ♣ 7 6 5 3
                ♠ A 9 8 7 6 4 3 2
                ♥ A 10 6 3
                ♦ Q
                ♣ ---

West led the ♣A and there wasn't a whole lot to the play. I set up my spade suit, playing two high trumps along the way. Then I ran my spades and West could ruff in whenever he pleased, but I had the rest and a 10.51-IMP pick-up.

After I claimed, I expected the opponents to give me the third degree about the bizarre way I had bid the hand. Instead, they said nothing. Xwing told me later that if they questioned me, I should say I was bidding up the line. Ha ha.

Most of the field was in 4♠, making either five or six, depending on how they played the spade suit. Two pairs were bold enough to bid all the way to 2♠. Guess what? They made their contract. I couldn't make this stuff up.

Out of 72 tables, there were four other maniacs pairs who bid to 6♥. Three of us made the slam in hearts, but two pairs went down! One pair was in 7♥ doubled and another in 6NT doubled. Both contracts failed, of course. You can see how two pairs bid all the way to 2♠ and what all the players did if you click here.