I had a similar thing happen on the way to an ODI at Lords. It was Regent Street outside BBC Broadcasting House. At first the sharpness of the sound and the echoing off all the buildings made me dissociate myself from it, but when my bottom descended more than expected I reluctantly accepted it must have been me. Turned out the beading failed. Managed to find a bike shop, walk the rest of the way and got it back during the change of innings, only missing a few overs of the reply.
Just say its like baseball, with only 2 bases, 2 batters who swap positions, and the batters keep going up to 5 days, (when you can measure how much the grass has grown!!!) until the top willow stick that balances on three sticks gets knocked off, instead of 2 hours max for baseball!Might have to explain cricket to our American friends. Lol
Many years ago my back tyre exploded with a huge bang. There was a long gash. No idea why. I was going downhill fast, and then went into a traffic jam, which meant I was going slow when it blew. Had it gone slightly earlier, I would have been on a sticky wicket.