Resuming at 13:00 BST on 331-5, Essex took 14 runs off the first over from Timm van der Gugten, before Noah Thain hoisted Ray Toole’s first delivery for six.

Bell was leg-before to van der Gugten, having registered his third half-century in as many matches on loan from Lancashire.

But Simon Harmer had time to face only one ball before the rain returned, with umpires Alex Wharf and Mike Burns calling it off shortly afterwards.

The match was notable for the retirement of four players- the Glamorgan trio of Colin Ingram, Chris Cooke and Billy Root, together with Essex’s Dean Elgar who signed off with a century.

Asa Tribe’s marathon 184 and Zain ul Hassan’s career-best 5-14 put Glamorgan in a strong position after the first innings before the Elgar-inspired fightback.

Glamorgan head coach Richard Dawson told BBC Sport Wales:

“The rain has come in, we can’t do much about that and it’s disappointing that we didn’t finish the game after a long season.

“It’s been a long six weeks so the whole build up to this week has been great to say thank you to those playing their last game (Colin Ingram, Chris Cooke and Billy Root) I’m sure there’ll be some emotions around.

“Staying up is the main thing. We’ve competed across the season with some really exciting games of cricket, found out about and developed a lot of players under different circumstances in Division One against some quality opposition so it’s been a different challenge, physically. We’ll look where we’ve done well, where we can improve and what additions we can make.”

Essex Director of Cricket Chris Silverwood said:

“It’s been a disappointing game in many respects. It’s great to see Dean rise to the occasion and go out on his own script but if we look back at the game we’ve put ourselves in a sticky situation we’ve had to battle hard to get out of. In the last few games it’s happened way too often, so it’s something we have to work on in the winter.

“George Bell’s great in the dressing room, proved he’s a really good player and I can’t speak highly enough of him for what he’s done or us since coming in. I think he’s put his best foot forwards and he’ll be someone I’ll be having conversations with, I think he’s fit the bill very well.

“We’ll obviously keep an eye on (Leicestershire’s appeal decision) because we don’t want to go to the second division and we’ve got to hope that doesn’t happen. We can only control what’s in front of us so we’ll just have to wait and see.

“I think it’s been really difficult last few weeks. It’s been a bit of a revolving door with people coming in and out, the injuries and unavailability didn’t help. We need to try recruit well, we’re looking at players- Wiaan Mulder I want to get back, George (Bell) – we need to try create competition within the squad but also because if there are injuries, England callups it’s a lot easier for us.”