Vintcent van der Bijl

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Vintcent Adriaan Pieter van der Bijl (known as Vince or Pieter) was a South African cricketer. He was born in Rondebosch, Cape Town on 19 March 1948, where his father, Pieter van der Bijl, was headmaster of the Diocesan College Preparatory School after retiring from playing first-class cricket for Western Province and South Africa. His grandfather, V.A.W. van der Bijl (also Vintcent), and great-uncle, Voltelin van der Bijl, also played first-class cricket for Western Province.

He went to school at the Diocesan College Rondebosch, where he not only showed a single-minded dedication to cricket, but, owing to his size and strength, was a useful rugby player and outstanding shot-putter. He later studied at the University of Natal, and became a teacher in Pietermaritzburg, but played first-class cricket as an amateur for Natal from 1968/69 to 1979/80. He was South African Cricket Annual Cricketer of the Year in 1971. He was appointed captain of Natal in 1976/7, and the team won the Currie Cup and Datsun Shield that year. He gave up teaching in 1979 and went to work for Wiggins Teape, but he was given leave to play for Middlesex in 1980. He took 85 first-class wickets for Middlesex at a bowling average of 14.72, the third-best first-class bowling average for that season among bowlers with more than 20 wickets, behind Joel Garner and Richard Hadlee.

[1] Middlesex team won the County Championship and the Gillette Cup, and he was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1981. He played a final season for Transvaal in 1982/3. In all, he played in 156 first-class matches, taking 767 wickets at an average of 16.55.

He was tall, 6ft 7½in, and bowled his fast-medium deliveries with accuracy, pace and bounce. The peak of his playing career was during the years of South African sporting isolation, as a result of the South African government's apartheid policies. He was picked for the 1971/72 South Afrian tour to Australia which was cancelled in the wake of the d'Oliveira affair. Cricinfo describes him as "one of the best bowlers not to play Test cricket".