Have just noticed that this week's online puzzle (787) gives today as the closing date, whereas up to last week it was always the following Friday. Does anyone know if this is a deliberate change or just a typo ? It doesn't seem that long ago that the deadline was reduced from 8 to 5 days.
Looks like it's just changed, 735 was the first online copy to give a date and that was Friday 5 days ahead. As you spotted (I didn't notice) 787 is just four days ... if it stays at this, we'll have to be really quick!
I don't see the online version but the closing date for all three Sunday Telegraph crosswords changed from Friday to Thursday about six weeks ago ( and Monday's Herculis was moved from Thursday to Wednesday at the same time - an even tighter deadline!! ) . A friend of mine wrote to the crossword editor about this but didn't even receive the courtesy of an acknowledgement.
I was also puzzled over the 'different' closing date to Spectator 1842 (Golden by Dumpynose) - 14 days instead of the usual 18. 1843 reverted to 18 days, and this week's is even longer to allow for the forthcoming Bank Holidays (a whopping 32 days !)