second. Despite his success, however, van der Bijl's batting attracted criticism. The Times, reporting on his 97 not out against Essex, wrote: "His driving too often had the dead and muffled sound that comes from bad timing and a lack of follow-through. Still, his defence was good and if he took an unconscionable time to reach his 50 he deserved the century that he just missed." Wisden Cricketers' Almanack too, in its review of the 1932 Oxford season, was also somewhat faint in its praise: "Van der Bijl seemed to play an unnecessarily laboured game for a man of such fine physique," it wrote. "Patient, with very strong defence, he usually took a long time to settle down and seldom allowed himself the luxury of an attempt to force the game." In a year when Oxford were not strong in cricket, however, van der Bijl was one of the early selections for the University Match, though in a high-scoring drawn game with Cambridge he scored only 7 in his single innings. Back in South Africa Leaving Oxford, van der Bijl returned to South Africa, but did not play first-class cricket over the next couple of seasons. He reappeared in three games in the 1934–35 season for Western Province with no great success, and was not in the 1935 South African team in England. The following year, he played only one match, right at the end of the season, and did not feature in the Tests against the Australians. From 1936–37, however, he played more regularly and in 1937–38, he was the captain of the Western Province side. Regular cricket brought more success: he finally hit a first-class century, more than 10 years after his debut, in making 195 against Griqualand West in 1936–37, which would remain his highest first-class score – in this match he also opened the bowling, though he did not take any wickets, and he was never a regular bowler. The following season, in a dozen innings, there were two further centuries and five other scores of more than 50, and he averaged 60.30. By this time, Van der Bijl's reputation for stodgy batting was well in the past. In the match against Eastern Province at the end of the 1937–38 season, he hit 28 off six balls of the final over of the match to win the game. Test cricketer As was usual at that time,