yep it does 
once again, elegant! 
[edit]
just in case anyone's monitoring this thread,
here's the complete temp override to fix DateField's change event firing
Code:
Ext.override(Ext.form.Field, {
onFocus : function() {
if (!Ext.isOpera) { // don't touch in Opera
this.el.addClass(this.focusClass);
}
if (!this.hasFocus) {
this.hasFocus = true;
this.startValue = this.getValue();
this.fireEvent("focus", this);
}
},
onBlur : function() {
this.beforeBlur();
this.el.removeClass(this.focusClass);
this.hasFocus = false;
if (this.validationEvent !== false && this.validateOnBlur && this.validationEvent != "blur") {
this.validate();
}
var v = this.getValue();
if (String(v) !== String(this.startValue)) {
this.fireEvent('change', this, v, this.startValue);
}
this.fireEvent("blur", this);
}
});