The possibility of a wet pitch in Brisbane was suggested by other Tests there and the weather preceding the game. There was too many clouds about in Brisbane for the city to miss rain for a whole week. Old women of both sexes "[sic]" were blaming our weather upsets on the atomic bomb experiment carried out by the Americans on Bikini Atoll, to our north... and so there was no national caterwauling over Australia's loss of face at Brisbane. Few stopped to think that had Australia lost the toss, they would have certainly have lost the Test." Australia won the First Test at Brisbane by 70 runs to go 1–0 up in the series, but the real winners were England and Australian cricket. Before the match the press and public had been contemplating a one-sided contest in which a weak England team would be overwhelmed by Australia, now they had a fighting series on their hands. Few Australians fail to credit a gutsy performance and the stock of the tourists rocketed. It was also apparent that Australia had a chink in their armour as their batting collapsed on a perfectly good wicket on the 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. "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." 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.