Hi Sharen, i think the suggestions from the others are a great place to start, basically you need think along the lines of that your camera is attempting to capture enough light to generate a clear and well lit image.
At night time, just as humans don't see as well as in the daytime, so does the camera suffer from lack of light, the pupils in our eyes widen to allow more light to enter, and our brain also fills in a lot of gaps to allow us to see at night, the camera also needs adjustments to help see in the dark.
As mentioned before by a previous poster, In basic terms you can make your camera more sensitive to light (increasing the ISO) the downside can be degrading of picture quality (noise or grain in the image) at high ISO, new cameras these days are very good at avoiding such noise so don't be afraid to try, anyway, the way i look at it is, a slightly noisy pic, is better than NO pic at all.
The other thing (also as mentioned) is to allow time for the camera sensor to absorb more light with a slower shutter speed, if you keep the shutter open for long enough you can make night look like day, this method however, is not practical for fast moving objects as it will introduce blur (as you have already seen)
Using a zoom lens on full zoom will often reduce the cameras ability to absorb any available light, try to use use a low f-stop or fast lens (need less light) that operates down to a small "f" number (normally the f-stop is written in the outside of the lens), use it on minimal zoom, sure your image may be further away, but you will have the best shot at getting something you can use, even if it means cropping the image in the PC later to make the subject appear closer.
You can also help your camera by positioning yourself so you are shooting with any available light (such as a track light) behind you, the light behind you will help light the subject, but if you shoot toward a light, the camera may see this light as the overall light available for the image, and if the light is quite bright, the camera will do what our eyes do when we look into a bright light (like when we squint), and so the camera will try and darken the whole image down, this will result in everything you wish to capture looking dull and dark.
The other way to get more light at night is of course by using a flash, unfortunately most standard camera flashes do not work over a very long distance, nor give very much control, a extra external flash is the best way, but will cost more money, and add bulk to your camera/bag, plus external flashes require extra batteries to operate, flash can also be a art in itself to master, and can also annoy the hell out of people having them "pop" off in their face all the time.
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Originally Posted by 2TROLLFAM
