This was the first Ashes series to be played since the retirement of Don Bradman and it saw the debut of Ken Archer, Jim Burke, Graeme Hole and Jack Iverson for Australia and John Warr and Roy Tattersall for England.

Selection of the Australian team would seem to be a simple process as eight of its members were highly talented cricketers who almost picked themselves; Lindsay Hassett, Arthur Morris, Neil Harvey, Don Tallon, Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Ian Johnson, and Bill Johnston.

The managers Brigadier Michael Green and John Nash, captain Freddie Brown, vice-captain Denis Compton and senior professional Len Hutton kept most of the team from the Fourth and final Test against the West Indies in 1950.

Freddie Brown, Denis Compton, Len Hutton, Reg Simpson, John Dewes, Trevor Bailey, Arthur McIntyre, Alec Bedser, Doug Wright all stayed, but the young opener David Sheppard was replaced by veteran Cyril Washbrook and Godfrey Evans returned as wicket-keeper.

The tour had up to that date been one long succession of inglorious displays that had riled the critics without exception...it was no exaggeration to state that before the game began not one man in the crowd of 13,000 was prepared for the shocks that followed.

Miller hit a typical Doug Wright over for 12 as he served up a mixture of full tosses, long hops, googlies, fierce leg-breaks and cunningly flighted balls.

Brown (2/63) continued after the break, mixing up his medium-paced seamers with leg-spin to have the out of form Australian wicket-keeper Don Tallon caught by Reg Simpson on the square leg boundary at 172/7.

On the recommendation of an MCC committee member in Australia the tour selectors had decided to demote Len Hutton – the best opener in the world – to bat at number 5 so that he could stiffen the fragile lower order.

Ray Lindwall bowled only one over before being taken off and Keith Miller (2/29) and Bill Johnston (5/35) were brought on by Hassett to exploit the conditions with their part-time spin as England collapsed from 49/1 to 67/7 as good length balls leapt chest-high, shot along the ground, turned and straightened.

Bedser holed out to Neil Harvey off Iverson, Bailey gave a simple catch to Bill Johnston and Godfrey Evans ran out his fellow wicket-keeper Arthur McIntyre when he called for an unnecessary third run.

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.

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.

Keith Miller, whose matinée idol looks greatly affected his teenager fans, made 18, but his potential boundaries were stymied by Cyril Washbrook in the covers and Reg Simpson on the boundary-fence and he was trapped lbw by Freddie Brown (1/28) to bring Australia down to 93/4 on a good pitch on a perfect sunny day.

Many were the theories advanced in support of Umpire Cooper, an Adelaide man, during the interval, but the dressing-rooms on both sides seethed with indignation, and Hutton had the consolation of knowing that several of the Australians nearer to the ball than Iverson, considered a mistake had been made.

As a result the unhappy Brian Close was dropped in favour of Warr, making his debut, and England went into the Test with Doug Wright as the only specialist spinner, supported by the part-time spin of Freddie Brown and Denis Compton.

[70][71][72] Brown had only himself and John Warr to bowl along with Bedser, and there began a performance that for sheer determination and willingness to work must stand unrivalled in Test history, for it was essential that runs should be kept down as well as wickets taken...

Sam Loxton survived a close run out when Cyril Washbrook brilliantly threw down his stumps, but was out for 17 when he hoisted a long hop from Brown into the hands of Bedser, who then caught Don Tallon lbw for 18.

Denis Compton avoided his pair and held out for 104 minutes making 23, his highest score of a terrible series, before running out Gilbert Parkhouse for 18 and popping a catch to the hungry Ian Johnson off Bill Johnston (1/31).

He passed 2,000 runs in Tests and made his seventh Ashes century in four years, overtaking Victor Trumper and Bill Woodfull placing him behind only Sir Donald Bradman on the list of Australian century-makers against England.

This was not perhaps an innings to be compared with his Brisbane classic, but it was, nevertheless, batsmanship sublime, worth first a hundred and then 150, with off drives, late cuts, hooks and leg glances, all performed with that easy composure so completely the Yorkshireman's own.

He refused and Lindwall bowled at a reduced pace, so nudged by Miller Tallon moved up for the third ball, which nicked Denis Compton's bat and the keeper took the catch low off the ground.

Freddie Brown was caught leg before by Miller (1/30), who immediately appealed and Umpire Cocks gave him out, then the ball rolled back onto his stumps and knocked off a bail, so he ended up being bowled.

Brown left the hospital early in the morning, but was unfit to play and vice-captain Denis Compton became the first professional captain to lead England since Jack Hobbs when Arthur Carr was injured in 1924–25.

Umpire Cocks took so long to make a decision that Johnson walked (almost unheard in Australia) to give the long-suffering Warr his first Test wicket and a bowling average of 281.00, the highest by an England bowler.

[99][100][101] John in fact in these two Tests took one for 281, which caused a few of us thereafter childishly to hum in his presence the Ancient and Modern Hymn number 281, 'Lead us Heavenly Father, lead us', with emphasis on the lines "Lone and Dreary, Faint and Weary, Through the Desert thou did'st go."

Ian Johnson (2/63) had Roy Tattersall caught by Arthur Morris then bowled John Warr without a run being added and as Freddie Brown was absent injured England were out one hour and forty minutes from stumps on the sixth and last day.

The second day was lost to heavy rain and fears of another Brisbane-like sticky rose, but the pitch dried out on the Sunday and flattened out nicely when pressed by the big electric roller on the Monday.

Lindwall bowled Bedser for 11 and Jack Iverson (2/40) disposed of Trevor Bailey and Doug Wright to bring last man Roy Tattersall in at 246/9 with England just 18 runs ahead.

Hassett found another partner in Graeme Hole and saw out the day at 129/4, but was skittled in the morning for 48 – Doug Wright's 100th test wicket – when a leg-spinner zipped one past his bat and toppled his off-stump.

Brown figured that if anybody deserved some easy wickets it was Bedser and the big Surrey bowler removed Lindwall, Johnston and Iverson for five runs and ending his superb tour with 5/59, 10/105 in the match.