I *want* misaligned columns in Word

I'm trying to set up something to show overlap of various times in a grid-type layout. For example, in a walking relay with handicaps, Jake starts walking at 9.56am and arrives at 11.24am then Peter continues until 11.54, Sue starts walking at 10am and arrives at 11.43am when Bob continues until 12.05pm, whereas John starts walking at 10.10am and arrives at 11.32am and Wendy then sets off and arrives at 12.02pm. My intent is to show that visually by cells that have their name in them or a colour-filled cell but with the cell walls in the correct relationship to each other according to the times. This may help explain what I mean:

| JakeJakeJakeJakeJake | PeterPeterPeterPeter |
- | SueSueSueSueSueSueSueSueSue | BobBobBobBob|
- - - | JohnJohnJohnJohnJohnJohn | WendyWendy |

I know that Word can have misaligned columns in each row but although I can manage to make the columns line up when I've pasted something and the columns are all over the place, I have no idea how to make them misalign on purpose. Googling isn't getting me very far either because the only key words I can think of are explaining how to get RID of misaligned columns!

I'm not insistent on using Word and would be quite happy to use another program that can easily do this if anyone can suggest a free one.

Hope someone can help - thanks.

 

Why not use Excel for this? Seems like it would suit this purpose better than Word.