Matty Fisher gives Yorkshire the upper hand against Gloucestershire

The good doctor knew these parts like the back of his stethoscope; he actually holds the record for the highest individual score against Yorkshire – 318 not out in 1876.

While Gloucestershire’s patrons paid homage to their past, regarding with reverence the bust that was only recently unveiled, the travelling Yorkshire support had eyes only for the present and the new era that began under head coach Ottis Gibson.

It was an intriguing first day of Gibson’s reign, Yorkshire dismissing Gloucestershire for 227, with the Australian opening batsman Marcus Harris making 136 of them on debut, and Matty Fisher taking four wickets, the visitors reaching 37-0 at stumps.

“I’m buzzing,” said Fisher afterwards, the pace man capturing 4-19 from 14.1 overs to back up his impressive Test debut for England last month. “At lunch and tea, when they were two down and four down, I think we thought that we might be out there all day (in the field). I’m glad that we’re off now and that the lads have started well with the bat.

“The wicket nipped quite fast, which helped with the edges, and I think we bowled well without bowling at our best. It will be a big hour first up in the morning and hopefully we can get their bowlers into their second and third spells.”

In humid conditions, and with a good number of Yorkshire fans present, the visitors inserted on a pitch that offered good pace and carry but bowled too wide in the morning session.

Haris Rauf, the Pakistan pace man making his Yorkshire debut, and only his fifth first-class appearance, served up too many four balls from the Pavilion End; indeed, the runs during his opening burst of 5-1-24-0 all came in boundaries. At one stage, Harris took three successive fours off the well-built Rauf: first, the left-hander square-drove him to the foot of the electronic scoreboard; then he edged him to the third-man boundary via wicketkeeper Harry Duke’s gloves – a tough chance diving to his left, but one that should have been taken when Harris was 18 – before getting on top of the bounce to cut him away.

Yorkshire looked a little forlorn as lunch approached, but it would have tasted a good deal better after Fisher struck twice just before the end of the session.

Ben Charlesworth, after adding 50 for the first wicket with Harris, edged behind to Duke; then James Bracey was caught at second slip by Adam Lyth.

On a day when Yorkshire also gave a first-class debut to James Wharton, a 21-year-old batsman from Huddersfield, who played two T20 games a couple of years ago, the cricket was nip-and-tuck for the first two sessions as Gloucestershire grafted beneath overcast skies, the sort in which the sun seems permanently to be trying – and failing – to peek through.

They had lifted their total to 99 when Graeme van Buuren, the captain, flashed at a ball from his opposite number Steve Patterson and was safely caught at second slip by Lyth.

Harris went to a 110-ball half-century that contained eight boundaries, adding 53 for the fourth wicket with Miles Hammond, a surname synonymous with these parts.

Like van Buuren, Hammond rather gave it away, though, pulling Fisher to Rauf as he ran around the long-leg boundary. Nonetheless, a tea-time total of 155-4 was not to be sniffed at, and perhaps had Gloucestershire fractionally ahead. Everything changed, however, in a madcap over just after the break.

Rauf, switching ends to the Ashley Down side, and following a second spell of 6-1-25-0, served up a dramatic start to spell No 3. From the first ball, Duke dropped Ryan Higgins as the wicketkeeper moved to his right; from the second, another edge flashed through Duke’s hands and disappeared to the rope.

There followed two dot balls before Rauf claimed his first wicket for Yorkshire, Higgins pulling tamely to mid-wicket, and then his second wicket next ball when Tom Lace was leg-before to a fast yorker.

Harris went to a 200-ball hundred with 17 fours, but Gloucestershire slipped to 178-7 when Zafar Gohar was stumped advancing to Dom Bess.

Rauf had Matt Taylor taken at third slip, leaving the hosts 183-8, only for Harris and Josh Shaw, the former Yorkshire pace bowler, to add a valuable 43 runs.

Fisher finished things off when Ajeet Dale edged to gully.