It was, just like tonight. With only one vowel there is a high chance that it will be used twice. Only two vowels are regularly used in pairs, and this was one of them. With that in mind there was a high chance that they would occupy slots 3 & 4. Having eliminated the other four vowels plus five consonants directly and Q indirectly it was a question of going through the remaining consonants to find a pair to front the word.