I would use Access because I know it. Also because it is easy to create
queries and to produce different summary reports.

Access would have no problems with additional columns  being inserted because
each column would have a unique name and would be referred to by name.

The issue with webqueries is that web pages are not structured consistently.
When you look at a webpage you can say "That stuff in the centre at the bottom
is what I want, copy  it and paste it. However to the computer it is just part
of a stream of bytes.

The webquery tools work  well _if_ the data  is in a separate table on the
webpage and there are not too many tables, nested tables, etc. This depends
on the whim of the web designer and the tools he is using. A web page
designed in MS Word looks (to the computer) quite different from one handmade
in html or one prepared using DreamWeaver. These differences are not visible
to you and therefore it is easy to pick stuff off the surface of the page
without worrying about the structure underneath.

It makes no difference what application you use to extract the data. This
problem will always exist as it is at a different level from the application
itself. Information which is presented in an obscure fashion behind the
scenes will not flow into access any better than it will into excel. Actually
it could be more difficult because with excel  you can import and then tidy,
rearrange columns, etc. To import data into Access you have to import into
the correct columns in the first place and the data has to be of the right
type. A string (such as "no play") in a numeric field will cause access to
spit the whole row out.