[chalks]

I'm south:

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I expected north to have weak spades, values in hearts, and opening count. Is that wrong? As it happens, we got a very nice score for crushing their 2nt (down 3), so I'm certainly not upset about the result.

Actual hands:

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How would you have bid it?

[blackshoe]

Well, I certainly wouldn't have doubled 2♠. In my partnerships, North has a 2NT overcall (balanced 15-18, stopper in spades).

[sasioc]

North will usually have short spades (rather than weak ones) and length in the other three suits. The other major (in this case hearts) is more likely to contain four cards than either of the minors, although I'm not sure I would say that heart *values* are specifically implied as opposed to length. Partner could certainly have something like

♠x
♥Jxxx
♦AQxx
♣KQJx

Doubling 2♠ for takeout is completely normal on this hand, but it does not contain values in hearts. Similarly, the following hand contains weak spades and values in hearts but does not resemble a takeout double:

♠ xxxx
♥ AK
♦Jxxxx
♣ KQ

I'd normally expect around an opening hand upwards, maybe a little less if the shape was very good, particularly if partner was an unpassed hand. 1444, 14(53), 13(54), 24(43) shapes are all pretty common for a takeout double at the two level.

You can also double when your hand is too good for any other action, eg. with a flat hand that is too strong to bid 2NT (eg. a balanced 22 count), intending to bid your suit (or, in my example, NT) later to tell partner that actually you have a good hand, not a classical takeout double hand. My guess is that either your partner thought he was too good to bid 2NT or he thought that x was penalties (not that you necessarily want to make a penalty double on the north cards - I wouldn't!). Most people would bid 2NT on North's hand to show a spade stop, a flat hand and about 16-18 points.

[billw55]

On the hand you show, north's double of 2♠ is just plain wrong.