Peter Mans

{{Short description|South African snooker player}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}

{{Use South African English|date=October 2023}}

{{Infobox snooker player

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| birth_date = 1915

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| death_date = September 1975

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| Sport country = South Africa

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Peter Mans (1915 – September 1975) was a South African professional snooker player.{{cite book |last=Kobylecky |first=John |date=2019 |title=The Complete International Directory of Snooker Players – 1927 to 2018 |publisher=Kobyhadrian Books |isbn=978-0-9931433-1-1 |page=149 }}{{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Ian |date=1987 |title=The Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Snooker - revised edition |location=Twickenham |publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-600-55604-6 |page=41}} He was the first South African Professional Champion and held title, which was contested on a challenge basis, from 1948 to 1950.{{cite web|title=Other National Professional Championships |url=http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/natpro.html |website=Chris Turner's Snooker Archive |accessdate=5 December 2017 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107161810/http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/natpro.html |archivedate=7 January 2012}}{{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Ian |date=1987 |title=The Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Snooker – revised edition |location=Twickenham |publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-600-55604-6 |page=124-125}} Professional and coach Jack Karnehm, in a 1981 book, called Mans "South Africa's outstanding player of the past" and stated that he had won 13 national-level titles from 1939 to 1952.{{cite book |last=Karnehm |first=Jack |date=1981 |title=World snooker |publisher=Pelham |isbn=978-0-7207-1328-2 |page=34}}

Horace Lindrum played Mans in South Africa in 1947, and suggested that he make a playing tour of Australia.{{ cite book |last=Lindrum |first=Horace |title=Horace Lindrum's Snooker, Billiards and Pool |publisher=Paul Hamlyn Pty |location=Dee Why West, Australia |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-7271-0105-1}} Mans arrived in Sydney in September 1947, planning to spend the next year and a half touring Australia and New Zealand.{{cite news |title=South African snooker star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-south-african/125116644/ |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=23 September 1947 |page=10}} At the time, he held the South African record for the highest break, having made one of 104.

Mans later travelled to England and participated in the eight-player 1949/1950 News of the World Snooker Tournament, for which he was seeded 7th; he finished 5th.{{cite news |title=Davis surprises himself |work=Western Daily Press |date=23 January 1950 |page=3}} At the 1950 World Snooker Championship he lost 32–36 to George Chenier; the score was 34–37 after {{cuegloss|dead frame|dead frame}}. Mans, whose highest {{cuegloss|break|breaks}} in the match were 54 and 53, had won six successive {{cuegloss|frame|frames}} to recover from 26–34 to 32–34.

He played Joe Davis several times. Journalist and author Ivor Brown watched Mans playing Davis in London, and wrote that "[Mans] has a detached look when not actually concentrating on the shot; he might be musing on the eternal problems of mankind."{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Ivor |title=Winter in London |year=1951 |publisher=Collins |location=London |page=199}} Lindrum commented in 1959 that "Unfortunately, inconsistency of form has prevented Mans from really hitting the top ranks in world-class play."{{cite news |last=Lindrum |first=Horance |title=Play your shots the Mans way |newspaper=Evening Sentinel |date=14 February 1959 |page=3}} He was the owner of the St James Clubs snooker hall in Jameston and Springs, Eastern Transvaal. His son Perrie Mans, runner-up at the 1978 World Snooker Championship, learnt to play the game there.{{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Ian |date=1987 |title=The Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Snooker – revised edition |location=Twickenham |publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-600-55604-6 |page=41}}