Pieter van der Bijl

Who was Pieter van der Bijl?

Pieter Gerhard Vintcent van der Bijl was a South African cricketer who played in 5 Tests in 1938–39. His son, Vintcent, also had a successful first-class cricket career.

The son of one Western Province cricketer and the nephew of another, Pieter van der Bijl was educated at Diocesan College, Rondebosch, Cape Town, and was then a Rhodes Scholar at Brasenose College, Oxford University from 1928. A newspaper report in 1930 said that van der Bijl was "reputed to be the tallest man in Oxford". In many reports then and later, his surname was spelled "van der Byl".