first day and had been badly shown up on the rain-affected wicket on the third, but their bowling remained strong and Jack Iverson (4/43) had justified the selector's confidence in him. Second Test – Melbourne Preliminaries It was apparent that Brown could just string together a Test Eleven, and that was all. Nothing had been more disappointing that the continued poor showings by the young men of the side. Bailey was the only new-comer to lend an accomplished hand. So badly had the others shaped that Close...was to be given a Test berth in Melbourne on the strength of a second innings century against a country team at Canberra. Jack Fingleton The main story leading up to the Second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was the health of the England vice-captain Denis Compton. His famously damaged knee had swollen up after making another century – 115 vs an Australian XI – and hourly bulletins were posted by the MCC manager Brigadier Michael Green expressing optimistically that he would play in order to help draw a large crowd for the Test, though doubts where express by those who had seen him. In the end he was unfit to play and was replaced by the Welsh amateur batsmen Gilbert Parkhouse who had made 58 in the Australian XI game, adding 130 with the luckless Compton. The reserve wicket-keeper Arthur McIntyre was also dropped from his batting role and the teenaged Brian Close was brought in as the best of a bad bunch, having hit 105 not out against long hops and full tosses served up in a minor game. Brown thought that if nothing else as an all-rounder he could help take some of the strain off the other bowlers and so Close became the youngest Englishman to play Australia in a Test. Australia made only one change, dropping Jack Moroney for having made a pair in the First Test. His successor was chosen in the Australian XI game and opener Ken Archer (12th man at Brisbane) was given his Baggy Green ahead of the middle order batsman Jim Burke (who was made 12th man), although he had only made 81 to Burke's 128. Lindsay Hassett won the toss and batted first on a yellow, matted wicket made for batting. Australia – First Innings ...at Melbourne the young boys and girls go almost hysterical...I know several English cricketers who used to