DERBYSHIRE have signed Leicestershire wicketkeeper Tom New on loan after an X-ray showed Jamie Pipe did break his finger on the first day of their LV County Championship match against Northamptonshire.

Yesterday's play at Chesterfield was washed out after torrential rain in the morning and that allowed head of cricket John Morris to look into his options over the wicketkeeping position.

Pipe has a compound fracture to the end knuckle of his left index finger. It is the same finger he damaged earlier in the season but is an unrelated injury.

Although the extent of the damage has been verified by the X-ray, Derbyshire do not yet know how long it will keep Pipe out but his last broken finger sidelined him for a month.

Pipe, never one to happily accept that he will not be able to play, said he is confident of being able to bat in the match against Northants and would not rule out the possibility of keeping wicket in Sunday's Pro40 League game against Surrey at Queen's Park.

But Morris has taken a more cautious approach to Pipe's fitness and it will be New who comes in to make his debut against the Brown Caps on Sunday.

“It could be two weeks, it could be a month, it could be the end of the season with Pipey,” said Morris.

“We just don't know yet and until we do, we had to look into the best way to cover for him.”

Coincidentally, as Pipe was having his X-ray, an e-mail arrived from Leicestershire alerting all counties that New was available on loan and Derbyshire moved quickly to complete a deal.

New has a good reputation as a keeper but cannot get the gloves off Paul Nixon. The 23-year-old has a first-class career batting average of almost 32, with two centuries and 16 fifties, and has been used by Leicestershire as an opening batsman, though he has struggled recently.

Morris has two wicketkeepers on the staff, Freddie Klokker and Tom Poynton.

Klokker played in Pipe's absence this season and kept well but, because he is not yet England-qualified, giving him another run in the team would be the more expensive option.

Counties are docked a proportion of the money they receive from the England and Wales Cricket Board every time they play fewer than nine England-qualified players in their side and Derbyshire currently have Chris Rogers, Wavell Hinds, Charl Langeveldt and Greg Smith as non-qualified players in their line-up.

Poynton will keep wicket for the rest of this match and is rated by Morris as an excellent prospect for the future.

But Morris is reluctant to give the 18-year-old an extended run of matches through what could be a crucial period of the season.

Derbyshire are still in contention in the Championship and fancy their chances of success in the Pro40 League after an encouraging start.

Poynton has played only three first-class matches and though his glovework is good, it would be unreasonable to bat him higher than number nine, which would have an effect on the balance of the side.