This new challenger is a puzzle to me. From an international perspective it makes great sense, giving more players the opportunity for good grass court practice before Wimbledon qualies. From the British point of view it doesn't look to be the best value for money, compared with running challenger events at other times of year.

Given our players' current rankings, and the probability of a couple being given Queens' wildcards, we may well have no direct entrants. Nottingham qualies will in all likelihood be very weak, as few players will come over to play challenger qualifiers on grass if they are not going to be involved at Wimbledon in some form. That therefore should offer up the opportunity for less heralded Brits to qualify. However those who are not on the list for automatic Wimbledon wildcards will want to take part in the wild-card play-off that week, which will clash with round 2 (and possibly round 1) of the main draw.

The argument is even stronger on the women's side (a £100K + H challenger). Perhaps some sort of deal has been done to encourage the LTA to act in the best interests of international tennis.