Sheppard in to replace Parkhouse for the fourth Test, and a combination of limited opportunity and unimpressive scores meant that he did not reclaim a Test place until, on the New Zealand leg of the tour, an injury crisis brought him back to the side for the second of the two-match series. In a low-scoring match, he made 2 and 20. County stalwart Parkhouse returned to county cricket with Glamorgan in 1951 and, with the return of Clift as opening batsman, he resumed the No 3 batting position he had held before. By his 1950 standards, he had a modest season, scoring 1282 runs at an average of 27.86 with just two centuries. Wisden noted that he "disappointed" and added: "Lack of confidence against spin bowlers retarded the progress of this young batsman, and the fact that he was no longer opening partner for Emrys Davies may have been another disturbing factor." In fact, the 1951 season set the pattern for the next eight seasons of Parkhouse's career. In each season from 1951 to 1958, he made his 1000 runs for the year, but he never made more than two centuries in a season, and in 1952 and 1958 he made none at all. His batting average in most of these seasons was around 30, with 1642 runs at 35.69 in 1957 the best year, and 1126 at 24.47 in 1958 the worst. From 1953 he went back to opening the innings, initially, with Emrys Davies, then with Clift or captain Wilf Wooller, finally forming a regular partnership with Bernard Hedges. In 1954, he raised his own highest score with an innings of 182 against Middlesex at Lord's. And two years later, in 1956, he raised it again, to 201, in the match against Kent at Swansea. Indian summer The 1959 season saw a significant return to form for Parkhouse, and the style of his batting and the quick runs that he and Hedges made as the county's opening partnership were factors, in Wisden'''s view, in Glamorgan's rise from the depths of the County Championship in 1958 to challenge for the title. By mid-season, Parkhouse had already made four centuries and, in a season of Test experimentation against a modest Indian side following a disastrous Ashes tour of Australia the previous winter, the England selectors picked him, alongside the young left-handed Lancashire batsman Geoff Pullar, as a new opening partnership