diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_excel.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_excel.py
index 2cc94524b5d19..38b3ee192ab7a 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_excel.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_excel.py
@@ -21,12 +21,12 @@
 import pandas as pd
 
 
-def _skip_if_no_xlrd(version=(0, 9)):
+def _skip_if_no_xlrd():
     try:
         import xlrd
         ver = tuple(map(int, xlrd.__VERSION__.split(".")[:2]))
-        if ver < version:
-            raise nose.SkipTest('xlrd < %s, skipping' % str(version))
+        if ver < (0, 9):
+            raise nose.SkipTest('xlrd < 0.9, skipping')
     except ImportError:
         raise nose.SkipTest('xlrd not installed, skipping')
 
@@ -343,6 +343,7 @@ def test_excel_sheet_by_name_raise(self):
             self.assertRaises(xlrd.XLRDError, xl.parse, '0')
 
     def test_excelwriter_contextmanager(self):
+        _skip_if_no_xlrd()
         ext = self.ext
         pth = os.path.join(self.dirpath, 'testit.{0}'.format(ext))
 
@@ -350,10 +351,7 @@ def test_excelwriter_contextmanager(self):
             with ExcelWriter(pth) as writer:
                 self.frame.to_excel(writer, 'Data1')
                 self.frame2.to_excel(writer, 'Data2')
-            # If above test passes with outdated xlrd, next test
-            # does require fresh xlrd
-            # http://nipy.bic.berkeley.edu/builders/pandas-py2.x-wheezy-sparc/builds/148/steps/shell_4/logs/stdio
-            _skip_if_no_xlrd((0, 9))
+
             with ExcelFile(pth) as reader:
                 found_df = reader.parse('Data1')
                 found_df2 = reader.parse('Data2')