the Currie Cup domestic first-class competition was cancelled for the 1938–39 season as there was a tour of South Africa by an England team. Van der Bijl played in an early game for Western Province against the tourists and scored just 19 and 14. He was then picked as an opening batsman for the first Test of a five-match series, making his debut on Christmas Eve 1938; in this drawn game, he had limited success, scoring 4 and 38. He was more prominent in the second Test, another draw, scoring 37 in the first innings and then, when South Africa was forced to follow on making 87 and sharing a second wicket stand of 147 with Eric Rowan which saved the game. The Times reported: "Van der Byl (sic) played his usual stolid defensive game for the first part of his innings, but later used his great height to hit with vigour." There were no such heroics in the third game which England won by an innings; Van der Bijl scored 28 and 13. Having opened the innings with Bruce Mitchell in the first three matches, van der Bijl had a new opening partner in Alan Melville for the fourth Test, and they responded in South Africa's only innings of the game with a partnership of 108, at which score both batsmen were out, van der Bijl for 31 and Melville for 67. With the series still undecided (England were winning 1–0 with three matches having been drawn), the final Test was intended to be played to a finish: in the event, after a match of unprecedented high scoring, it was left drawn to enable the England team to return home. Van der Bijl had his best match, with innings of 125 and 97. In the first innings, van der Bijl put on 131 for the first wicket with Melville, and batted for the whole of the first day, at the end of which he was 105 not out. His batting was mixture of dour defence and pugnacious stroke-making, according to Wisden's report: "Van der Byl spent forty-five minutes before opening his score and three hours elapsed before he hit a boundary," it wrote. "He did not take the slightest risk though he astonished everyone when he punished Wright for twenty-two in one over, including five boundaries. Next he pulled a ball into the grand stand for 6." In the