But when Friday morning dawned in deepest South Wales, the rain was coming down, the wind was gusting, and the currents of the River Taff were moving swiftly.

It could only be the first day of a new cricket season, something that seems to start earlier each year.

Glamorgan have never staged a County Championship match earlier than April 3, in fact, and with good reason on the evidence of this Good Friday.

“We’re optimists,” said one spectator as he arrived with two friends and tried to explain himself to the steward on the gate.

“You’d have to be,” came the cheerful reply, followed by the apologetic: “Could I just check your bags as well please, lads”.

Check their brains, more like, one was tempted to say, but cricket fans are nothing if not optimistic.

An improving forecast suggested their optimism might not be misplaced and, sure enough, after plenty of showers and hanging around, play finally got going at 4.15pm, Glamorgan reaching 99-4 in 36 overs after Yorkshire won the toss and opted to bowl.

It felt like an easy decision for captain Jonny Bairstow, the skies still heavy and the tall trees swaying when the players emerged before a paltry crowd.

Ben Coad opened proceedings from the River Taff end and, in what proved to be something of a false dawn, Eddie Byrom, the 28-year-old left-hander, turned the first ball of the match to the square-leg boundary; it could only go downhill for Glamorgan from there.

Asa Tribe, the bespectacled 22-year-old right-hander, who is among those bidding to replace Zak Crawley in the Test team, almost fell to the first ball he faced - the opening one of the second over, bowled by Jack White.

It took the edge and landed just short of Adam Lyth at second slip, Tribe then clipping White’s third ball to the mid-wicket boundary to open his account.

Another close shave followed when Tribe had nine, Coad squaring him up and kissing the edge, the ball this time landing just in front of first slip George Hill.

Byrom was not so fortunate, however. Turned around by the fourth delivery of Coad’s fifth over, he edged low to third slip where Fin Bean took a superlative catch, one-handed to his left.

In midsummer weather with the hands warm and the muscles loose, Bean’s would have been a magnificent grab; in early April - on a day made for several sweaters - it was even better.

One brings two, as they say in the trade. Seven balls later, Yorkshire had Tribe, who edged behind a simple catch to Bairstow off White. There was nothing simple about it, however, when the same combination then accounted for Sean Dickson, the wicketkeeper flying to his right to claim the ball one-handed.

Thus Dickson was out for a ninth-ball duck on his Glamorgan debut, the score was 21-3 in the 12th over, and Yorkshire - their bowling and catching impressive - were visibly full of beans.

It helps when you have tone-setters of the standard of Coad and White, who were relentlessly probing and demanding of respect.

Coad conceded just 11 from his opening seven-over spell - in spite of being hit for that boundary off the first ball of the game, while White’s opening burst was 3-15 from seven overs, capped by the wicket of Kiran Carlson off the final ball of it, Dom Bess taking an instinctive catch just around the corner, high above his head.

At 28-4 after 14 overs, the match was proceeding at a fair old lick, as if determined to make up for the loss of the previous five hours.

Logan van Beek’s first ball in a Yorkshire shirt was steered away to the third-man boundary by Ben Kellaway, then Colin Ingram scythed the debutant for six over point. It was challenging for van Beek from the Cathedral Road end - he was clearly striving to make an impression - but Ingram, in particular, is a high-class player, the left-hander rocking back to cut him for another boundary.

Van Beek was withdrawn after three overs as Glamorgan’s fifth wicket pair stubbornly dug in. Earlier, as the players bided their time while the rain fell, van Beek cut an affable presence in the pavilion area, saying that he was delighted to have signed for the club.

“My first week couldn't have gone better in terms of meeting the guys, seeing the set-up, having a few trainings, and so on,” he said.

“Even today has been good fun in the changing room, getting to know the guys and just asking questions about their careers and where they want to go and all those kind of rainy-day questions.”

Van Beek later switched ends and thought he had struck with his first ball back, only for umpire Russell Warren to be unmoved by appeals for a catch behind off an inside edge when the batsman had 24.

When Ingram then diverted another ball towards Bairstow off van Beek, the wicketkeeper appeared to injure his right thumb and had to go off, Bean taking the gloves for the closing moments in a concerning conclusion.