Perrie Mans followed his father, Peter, into the professional ranks after many, many hours of practise at his father's club in South Africa.  Peter had been many times South African champion and reached the quarter-finals of the 1950 world championship. Perrie (his real name is Pierre) was South African Amateur champion in 1960 when only 19 and his country's professional title followed five years later - a trophy he held on nineteen occasions. A left-handed player, Perrie was one of the best long potters to grace the game however his positional play left a lot to be desired.

He played in his first world championship in Australian in 1970 not getting beyond the round robin stage. Missing a year he returned for the 1973 event and reached the last 16. He went one better in 1974 losing in the quarter-finals.  After an early exit in 1975 he reached the 1976 semi-final losing to the eventual winner, Ray Reardon, and, as a result was invited to play in the BBC Pot Black championship which he went on to win.

In the 1978 world championship he began what has become known as the Crucible Curse when he beat reigning champion, John Spencer in the first round. He went on to break many hearts by beating Fred Davis in the semi-finals before losing 25-18 to Ray Reardon in the final. That run took him to number two in the world rankings.