Cecil, I was going to propose try...catch again until I saw the VFP6 comment...
Just for interest, why do you need exclusive access? If there is a chance the target table is in use by others, could you bring the excel spreadsheet into a temporary repository and do a SCAN...INSERT...ENDSCAN?
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1