A large crowd flooded the venue at the Hua Hin Grand Hotel to see final which lasted more than three hours and finished just as the clock ticked past the midnight mark, when Prachuab Khiri Khan Governor Prasong Pitoonkijja handed the glittering tropy to the winner.
Neither Pettman nor Ratchapol, now in the 33rd spot in the world professional rankings, had entered the match as an outright title favourite, but the way things went in the went in the opening, a lot of people were left convinced that Lady Luck was bent on favouring the local hero.
Ratchapol first had lucky fluke on the last blue and then could not help suppress a grin as he followed it up with another one on the pink that paved the way for him winning the frame on the black.
However, mood of the crowd match switched swiftly as Pettman bounced back to the level ground. Ratchapol went one-up again, but the joy proved ephemeral on this occasion as well, as Pettman knocked home an absorbing break of 97 points in the fourth to level the match.
This time it was Pettman's turn to go ahead one frame and Ratchapol did well in the sixth to make it 3-3. The man from Preston had little trouble in taking the seventh and was then absolutely pleased to see Ratchapol squander a number of chances to even the score in the eighth frame and instead concede a 5-3 loss.
A beaming Pettman said later: "I am happy with the way I played in the tournament. I wasn't great today, but I definitely played better snooker in the final. James [Ratchapol] missed a number of easy pots and that helped as well.
"I am glad to have won this tournament. It is a great feeling. My last victory in a tournament was so long ago that I have no recollection of it at all or when exactly it was.
"I enjoyed being here and it turned to be a great tournament for me. I hope to be back here again next year to defend my title."
The next ranking tournament of the 2007 Thailand Ranking Circuit will be taking place at the Khum Suphan hotel in Suphan Buri on May 21-26. The three foreign wildcard players invited to take part in the event are talented Chinese professional Liu Song, Manan Chandra of India who won the third place at the 2006 world amateur championship and Hong Kong's Fung Kwok Wai, a quarter-finalist at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
Frame scores: Stuart Pettman (England) beat Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm 5-3 (62-69, 63-49, 10-62, 97(97)-0, 79-16, 48-83, 56-12, 53-45)
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