HOPES that a ray of sunshine might greet Durham's opening day of championship action after the winter of discontent failed to materialise.

The Emirates Riverside floodlights were on from the start of play against Nottinghamshire and it took only 15 minutes for rain to arrive.

Either side of a 15-minute delay Durham lost two batsmen not offering a stroke, and two more followed to leave them on 68 for four at lunch.

There was a warm ovation from a good-sized crowd for Keaton Jennings and Stephen Cook after Nottinghamshire dispensed with the toss.

There was also a cheer when Cook straight drove Jake Ball for two in the opening over, but the South African failed to add before edging behind two overs later when trying to withdraw his bat.

Durham left out Cameron Steel and Brydon Carse from their 13-man squad, so Jack Burnham went in at three and contributed 15 to a stand of 41.

That included four byes from left-armer Harry Gurney's first ball, which flew so far down the leg side that long leg got closer to it than Chris Read. The wicketkeeper would probably not have been impressed to see umpire Peter Hartley signal byes rather than wides.

Burnham departed in Luke Fletcher's first over, when he stayed back and offered no stroke to a good-length ball, which cut back to splatter off and middle.

Jennings had looked untroubled in reaching 28 until he shaped to turn James Pattinson to leg and the ball nipped away to hit off stump.

There was a second wicket for Fletcher when Michael Richardson pushed forward and edged low to Greg Smith a third slip.

Another beauty from Pattinson passed very narrowly over Paul Collingwood's stumps, but the Durham skipper was on eight at lunch with Paul Coughlin on two.