Possible Clues:

• Initiating ordeal
• Troublesome start while in very hot water?
• Trying pickle for starters?
• Immersion heater's an ordeal
• First experience of a severe ordeal, especially a first taste of military combat
• Test for a beginner using 'If' -- poem's bit far out?
• First experience of a difficult situation
• Rough start for ceremony naming military order
• A stiff probe I'm fighting in early trial?
• Difficult start, possibly dousing the flames?