diff --git a/ci/requirements-2.7.txt b/ci/requirements-2.7.txt
index dc6e2d9f55977..186d13c6dec7c 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-2.7.txt
+++ b/ci/requirements-2.7.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ xlwt==0.7.5
 numpy==1.8.0
 cython==0.19.1
 bottleneck==0.6.0
-numexpr==2.1
+numexpr==2.0.1
 tables==2.3.1
 matplotlib==1.1.1
 openpyxl==1.6.2
diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
index 5fcafdc295c5c..e478f46a7345f 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
@@ -844,8 +844,10 @@ def check(format,index):
 
     def test_encoding(self):
 
+        if LooseVersion(tables.__version__) < '3.0.0':
+            raise nose.SkipTest('tables version does not support proper encoding')
         if sys.byteorder != 'little':
-            raise nose.SkipTest('system byteorder is not little, skipping test_encoding!')
+            raise nose.SkipTest('system byteorder is not little')
 
         with ensure_clean_store(self.path) as store:
             df = DataFrame(dict(A='foo',B='bar'),index=range(5))